


Those Left Behind

by RiteTheWrongs



Category: Red vs. Blue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-25 11:50:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 34,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14378058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiteTheWrongs/pseuds/RiteTheWrongs
Summary: After the board leaders scattered when Tex tried to get to Alpha, the agents left with the project were sent on various secret missions to protect Freelancer’s interests. California and Hawaii were two sent to protect the Alpha in a box canyon after Florida's untimely demise. Or as we know them as, Caboose and Donut.





	1. A Nightly Stroll Down Moron Lane

**Author's Note:**

> Just a lsomething inspired by the "Is Caboose a Freelancer?" forum on the Rooster Teeth site and EruptionFang's "Freelancer TRUE Identities" on YouTube.

Prologue:

_The mess hall on the Mother of Invention was always full of life. For this reason, York had to literally drag Carolina in there._

_“I don’t want to go in there,” she growled as she dragged her heels. York would not be denied, though, and just pulled her harder._

_“Come on, it will be good to just eat with the team,” he sighed. “You haven’t been in the mess hall in weeks. It will do you some good to relax and let off some steam.”_

_Carolina growled again, but stopped struggling. If York really wanted this, then there was no stopping him from getting his way. The sound of the doors to the mess hall sliding out of the way signaled to Carolina that they were finally there._

_“York,” North called from the usual table that the board leaders sat at, right in the middle of the hall. He had somehow dragged South there, probably with more kicking and screaming than it had took to bring Carolina out to socialize. York and Carolina went through the meal line and grabbed their afternoon rations and sat down at the table. Besides the twins, CT and Wash were there as well._

_“Where’s Wyoming and Maine?” York asked as they joined their fellow freelancers.  North pointed towards another table in the corner of the hall where four other soldiers were sitting, along with Wyoming and Maine._

_“They're messing with the new recruits,” CT said, elbowing Wash, who was still eating through his helmet for some reason. The gray Freelancer sighed and took off his helmet, shaking out his short blonde hair, which already had a little grey in it._

_“You mean Maine’s sizing up California while Wyoming tries to flirt with Kansas and Rhode Island,” North chuckled._

_“Yeah right, not even Hawaii can make Rhode blush,” South smiled._

_“New recruits?” Carolina asked. “Why wasn’t I informed about this?”_

_“They’re not on our team,” York said. “They are the Director’s new personal guard. California is their leader.”_

_“Hm,” Carolina hummed, starting to stand up._

_“Where are you going?” York said, standing up as well and grabbing her arm._

_She glared at him, but he didn’t let go. Sighing, she said, “I’m just going to go say hi.”_

_“Sure you are,” chuckled York, letting her go. “And I’m coming to so I can make sure you behave.”_

_“You don’t trust me?” she smiled._

_“Nope,” York smiled back, walking towards the recruit’s table. Carolina shook her head and followed him._

_“Those two think they’re being covert, but they are more obvious than you and Wash,” South smirked at CT, earning a death glare from the aforementioned freelancers._

_As York and Carolina got closer to the table, Carolina finally got a good look at the recruits. There were two very tall soldiers, one male and one female, well over seven feet tall in armor. The male had blue armor with black stripes and the female had silver armor with black stripes. The male was wearing an old Mark V helmet and the female was wearing a raider helmet. The other two recruits were a short male and average female with pink and black armor and yellow and black armor, respectively. Both of them were decked out in full recruit armor. All of them seemed to be eating through their helmets like Wash tends to do. They were… an odd bunch for certain._

_“Oh come on,” Wyoming was saying as they arrived, “that joke is a classic.”_

_“If by classic, you mean we’ve heard it way too many times, then yes,” chuckled the girl in yellow armor._

_“Even Cal knows better jokes,” the guy in pink armor chuckled as well, earning a glare from the one in blue. She glanced at the blue one, Cal, and realized that he was arm wrestling Maine. And winning._

_“Hey guys,” York said, sitting at the end of the table next to the guy in pink. Carolina sat across from him and next to the girl in silver._

_“York! Great to see you bud,” The pink guy smirked, slugging York in the shoulder. “How’s the eye?”_

_“Better than your ear,” York laughed, gesturing to the soldiers helmet. The pink guy dipped his helmet like he was pouting, but the yellow girl just slapped the back of his helmet, causing pink to started chuckling._

_“You must be Agent Carolina,” the silver girl said, taking a sip of her water bottle through a straw. “York talks about you a lot.”_

_“Do not!” yelped York._

_“Do to,” pink muttered, earning himself a glare from York._

_“And you are?” Carolina asked._

_“Agent Rhode Island, but you can call me Rhode,” silver shrugged, putting out her hand to be shook. She shrugged again as Carolina left her hanging and put her hand down. “Pink Lemonade here is Hawaii, or as we call him HI. Yellow Mellow is Kansas, or Kan. And Big Blue is my brother California, or Cali.”_

_“I said call me Cal,” California grunted as he threw Maine’s arm down on the table._

_“Interesting,” said Sigma, coming online. “Your strength is quite unique.”_

_“Not really,” chuckled another fragment that appeared over Cal’s head. This fragment was a little lighter green than Delta, and looked like a young teenager._

_“Really Omicron?” Cal said. The fragment shrugged and went back offline. After a subtle ‘hmm’, so did Sigma._

_“And I refuse to be called ‘Pink Lemonade’,” HI groaned. “I didn’t exactly get to choose this color.”_

_“If it makes you feel better, we could always call you lightish-red,” Rhode smirked._

_“Hell no! That makes me sound like I’m in denial!” HI yelled, causing everyone except Cal and Carolina to laugh._

_“At least you don’t look like a bumblebee!” Kan groaned, slamming her head on the table. Even Carolina chuckled at that remark._

_“So, what do you four specialize in?” Carolina asked, determined to size up the new recruits in her own way. This had nothing to do with the fact that they were supposed to guard her father. Not in the slightest._

_“I’m engineer and vehicle expert,” Cal sighed. “Rhode is our close quarters combatant and interrogator. Hai is our grenedeir and demolition expert, and Kan is our translator and sniper.”_

_“You don’t talk much, do you old bloke?” Wyoming muttered. Cal just shrugged and went back to eating his mash potatoes._

_“I don’t know,” Rhode smirked, eyeing Maine. “I have a thing for the quiet types.”_

_Maine actually blushed. He slowly backed away and headed towards the other Freelancers. Sigma reappeared and started muttering, “Fascinating,” to himself._

_“Oh come on,” Wyoming grumbled and followed his large friend back to their table._

_“So, Engineer?” Carolina asked. “What use does that have in the field?”_

_Cal sighed and Rhode chuckled. HI and Kan were too deep in conversation with York to notice._

_“I’ve personally built our vehicles and the field gear of all agents,” Cal explained. “I’m can repair all gear in the field and break into any facility without triggering alarms, unlike York.”_

_“Hey!” York yelped, finally catching onto the conversation. Even Carolina laughed at that._

_“Well we should probably get back to the others, right Carolina?” York said, trying to get away._

_“Actually-.”_

_“Right, let's go,” York said grabbing her arm and dragging her back towards the leaderboard table._

_“Well, they sure are something else,” Carolina chuckled. York nervously chuckled back._

_“Yeah, Rhode and Cal can be a little weird, but their nice enough and keep each other in check. Hai’s a bit of a dick, though Kan has him reined in,” York smirked._

_“So, what’s their ranks?” Carolina asked as the two rejoined the other board leaders at their table._

_“UNSC ranks or Leaderboard?” CT asked. When Wash wasn’t looking she leaned over and took a bite of this macaroni with her fork, causing South to smirk._

_“Leaderboard,” Carolina sighed, an unspoken ‘obviously’ could be heard by everyone._

_“There not ranked, so no need to get overly competitive with them,” York sighed, getting back to his lunch. With his sandwich in his mouth, he said, “Tha Dorecter dozznt wont thm ta be distwacted fwom guad detwail.”_

_“That,” North agreed, “and the Counselor said something about Rhode and Cal’s already damaged psyche and previous training causing them to be more competitive than you or Tex.”_

_“I’m not buying it, though,” South grumbled. “The four of them have the most ‘unstable’ AI in the project according to the Counselor, so why would you give them to people with mental issues?”_

_“Relax, South,” North sighed. “You’ll get yours soon enough.”_

_“Whatever,” South growled, grabbing her tray and stomping out of the mess hall._

_North muttered something about annoying siblings and ran after her._

_“Right, well,” Wyoming started,clearing his throat. “Maine and I have an appointment with the doctor about his headaches. See you blokes later.”_

_“So… how’s your day been?” Wash asked, trying to start a conversation. His attempt failed as CT got up and left._

_“I’m going back to training,” Carolina said, grabbing her tray and leaving as well._

_“Carolina wait!” York called after her, trailing on her heels as the two of them left the cafeteria._

_“Well then,” Wash muttered to himself with a sigh._

_“Hey, Wash!” came the call from across the mess hall. Wash turned around to see Kan waving. “Want to come sit with us?”_

_A small smile crossed his lips as he grabbed his tray and speed walked over. He sat down next to Rhode, who patted him on the back with a smile._

_“Don’t worry, kid. If they keep on like this, eventually they’ll turn around,” Cal said with a smirk._

_“Well, alright then,” Rhode chuckled, turning towards the newcomer. “Wash, who do you think would win between Cal and a bear?”_

_Chuckles could be head from the newbie’s table for the rest of the lunch period._

 

**Present:**

Chorus was, for once, quiet. Hargrove’s troops had suffered heavy losses at the last encounter with the people of Chorus and retired to some far corner of the planet to lick their wounds. The Reds and Blues and most of the other troops had also retired, but to their bunks for the night. The only ones still awake were either the ones who had guard detail or were enjoying the rare silence that only graced Chorus at night.

Carolina was in the second group, having left Epsilon behind in the main terminal to monitor the surveillance cameras and work through their last data grab from a Mercenary base. She told the AI and Wash that she was patrolling, both of them accepting to answer, knowing that she was still on edge from the last battle. Though, she wasn’t really doing much patrolling as she was just enjoying the night air. She had even left her helmet behind in her the bunk.

She was walking down a side street when her calm night was suddenly interrupted by a loud crash that sounded a lot like someone tripping over a trash can. Pulling her DMR off of her back, she slowly crept into the opening that led to the alley where the noise had originated from.

“All right, come out with your hands up,” she called out. Slowly, two people who fell into neither category stumbled out of the alley and Carolina lowered her rifle. If it had been anyone else, Carolina would have kept the gun up, but the blue and pink soldier were too innocent to be planning anything against her.

“Hello, Agent Carolina!” Caboose cheered with a wave.

“Why are you two doing up at this hour?” Carolina almost groaned, her quiet night interrupted by the two most annoying Red and Blues.

“Th-That’s a secret,” Donut said with a nervous chuckle.

“What do you mean?” she sighed, rubbing her forehead. Just talking to these two almost gave her a migraine. Before Donut could answer, Caboose interrupted.

“We are getting cake baking stuff!” the large blue announced. “I want to make Church a birthday cake and Sergeant Stroodle said he would help me!”

“Yeah!” Donut agreed. “I love baking! Behind throwing, it’s my second favorite hobby!”

Carolina groaned at their completely flawed logic. No only could Church not eat cake, but AIs didn’t have birthdays. Although…

“I think Church would like a chocolate cake,” she said, very unconvincingly.

“What type of frosting?” Caboose asked in his serious voice.

“Cream cheese,” she smirked, “and don’t stay out too late. We have training at 0700.”

“Yes, Miss Carolina,” Caboose said with a poorly done salute. Satisfied that the two wouldn’t bother her anymore and that she would get a cake out of it, Carolina nodded and continued her walk. Once out of sight, the two soldiers stood up straighter and let out the breathes they’d been holding. Caboose reared back his arm and slapped the back of Donut’s helmet almost hard enough to dent it.

“What the fuck was that for?” Donut half yelled, half whispered.

“You lost your composure and nearly got us caught,” Caboose huffed, his voice dropping to a deep baritone. “Besides, how am I more stealthy than you? I’m over seven feet tall.”

“I’m a grenadier, I’m not use to being quiet,” Donut grumbled, his voice lowering, too, but not nearly as much as Caboose’s. Caboose just shook his head.

“Come on, we only have a few minutes until Smith and Jensen are no longer guarding the south wall and Omicron and Chi can’t keep Epsilon busy forever,” Caboose sighed. “Besides, now we have to make a cake.”

With that, they sprinted off into the night and towards the south exit.

 

Epsilon’s night was anything but peaceful. As soon as he entered the main terminal, he had been assaulted by had to be around four dozen hackers. No records showed Hardgrove having the capabilities to mount this assault, but Church didn’t have time to think about that. He was too busy constructing firewall after firewall to try and keep the hackers at bay and away from the main memory core. He didn’t even notice that he was being backed into a corner until it was too late. He had no choice but to barricaded himself in the core, protecting all of the sensitive files, but cutting himself off from all external sources, including the security footage that showed. Donut and Caboose leaving the city.

He also didn’t see a lime green hologram of a teenager and a purple hologram of a young adult try to give each other a high five, only to pass right through one another. The purple one face palmed while the green one laughed them they disappeared to their partner’s bunks. Church just sat there in the memory core, waiting for the hackers spirits to be crushed and someone to come get him out. He had to laugh at the irony of him being locked in the memory core, though.

 

“Why didn’t we just take one of the Warthogs?” Donut huffed, struggling to catch up with Caboose’s longer stride.

“Too much noise, and Lopez would notice. He’s been keeping a closer watch on them since Jenson broke my record of vehicles destroyed,” Caboose sighed, though he had a hint of pride in his voice at Jenson’s antics. Suddenly, he stopped causing Donut to bounce off his back. “Here should be good.”

“Thank God,” Donut groaned, dramatically falling to the ground.

“It wasn’t that far of a run,” Caboose said, quirking an eyebrow up and removing his helmet. His black hair was in a standard military high cut, but Omi had insisted that he gel it into a Mohawk on top when he had been implanted. He had tan skin that was littered with numerous scars that not even he remembered how he got them all. He grabbed Donut by his back plate and hoisted the smaller soldier easily to his feet.

“We ran over five miles non-stopped! I have a right to complain!” Donut growled. “Not all of us are super soldiers like you, Cal.”

“Well we have the run back, too, so catch your breath while you can, HI,” Caboose, or Cal huffed.

“Fuck,” Donut, or HI breathed as he removed his helmet as well. He had long blond hair pulled back into a bun and pale, almost white skin. The entire left side of his face was riddled in scars and his left ear was gone. “So where’s the recovery beacon located?”

“Small microchip with flashing green light in the back of the helmet,” Cal sighed. “As soon as we detach them, the beacon should signal-”. He was interrupted by HI putting a hand on his back.

“You sure you want to do this?” HI asked. Cal nodded. “And are you sure Wash and Carolina wont pick up the signal?”

“We could use all the backup we can get. We need Kan and Rhode,” Cal said, detaching his chip. “Wash is wearing non-freelancer armor and Carolina changed her helmet, so we should be fine.”

Once the chip was detached, the green light became red and a message appeared on their HUDs. _“Incoming Recover Beacon. Level 0. Agent California. Location: Chorus, 31.8243° N, 94.4910° W.”_

HI reached into his helmet and yanked out his chip as well. A second message joined the first on their hud. _“Incoming Recover Beacon. Level 0. Agent Hawaii. Location: Chorus, 31.8243° N, 94.4910° W.”_

Cal handed HI his chip and the shorter man threw the two into the distance. With that, they started their quiet journey back to the capital. They needed to get started on that cake.


	2. Give me the F#cking Cake.

Carolina’s walk had lasted longer than she intended. Usually, Church would call her around midnight, but he never called her. It was now two a.m. and she was slowly making her way back to the barracks. She entered the shared bunks of the higher ranking officers and was immediately overwhelmed with by the scent of warm chocolate and smoke. Her nose led her to the shared kitchen of the Red and Blue’s hall. She turned the corner and was, sadly, not surprised.

“Hello, Agent Carolina!” Caboose cheered and waved at the turquoise Freelancer. The blue sim trooper was covered in scorch marks and there was still a small flame on his shoulder. Simmons sprayed him with a fire extinguisher, successfully putting out the fire. The sim troopers were in the kitchen, but the only two in armor were Donut and Caboose.

“What happened?” Carolina groaned, too tired for this bullshit.

“Caboose fucking set himself on fire trying to make Church a stupid cake he can’t even eat,” Tucker grumbled, brushing his dreads out of his face.

“Tucker did it,” Caboose mumbled as he hid the remaining incendiary grenades under the counter.

“Fuck off,” Tucker huffed, hopping on a bar stool.

“On the plus side, the cake turned out fabulous!” Donut cheered, gesturing to the triple layer cake on the counter behind him. The icing was solid white with small flowers and ‘Happy Birthday, Church!’ written in blue icing in what could pass as a four year old’s handwriting.

Grif had been slowly inching towards the cake with a knife in his hand. He raised in over his head to stab the cake, Psycho music playing in the background (or his head) as he stabbed at the cake. Only for Caboose to knock the knife out of his hand, the small butter knife stabbing up to its handle in the wall. Caboose lifted the cake above his head and out of the reach of the orange sim trooper.

“We cannot eat without Church!” Caboose exclaimed. “It’s his birthday cake!”

“Come on! Church can’t even fucking eat,” Grif whined, attempting to jump and take the cake. After four or five jumps, Grif decided to punch Caboose in the chest, forgetting that it was Caboose.

“Ow…” Grif cried, holding his arm to his chest and tears on his face.

“I don’t think that’s going to work,” Simmon sighed at Grif’s antics and going to the freezer to grab him some ice.

“Fine!” Grif yelled. “Then let’s go find Church!”

Grif rushed out of the room, followed by Carolina, who really wanted the cake, too, and Donut, who was worried about if Epsilon had seen Chi. Caboose put the cake on top of the fridge where only he and Simmons could reach. He turned towards the maroon soldier and glared down at him as menacing as the giant blue teletubby Caboose could, causing Simmons to gulp. Despite being the tallest member of Red team at 6’1, Caboose towered over him and was still in armor.

“Don’t let Tucker get the cake,” Caboose said, his visor glaring down at Simmons. The maroon soldier nodded in fear as Sarge patted him on the back.

“Don’t you worry, son,” Sarge chuckled. “I know the standard procedure for a birthday cake standoff. That blue bastard won’t even get close.”

“What the fuck? I don’t even want your fucking cake!” Tucker yelled, though he was slowly inching his bar stool closer to the fridge. Caboose nodded and started running after the others, glad his visor hid his eye roll. Sarge turned towards Tucker and smirked.

“Simmons, defend the cake. I’ll take care of the attackers,” Sarge chuckled, cracking his fingers and rushing Tucker.

“Yes, sir,” Simmons smiled.

“Son of a bitch!” Tucker yelled, dashing away from the crazed sergeant.

 

Despite how fast Grif and Carolina had took off, Caboose managed to catch up with them as they were entering the command building that hosted the main terminal. They entered the building and the four of them ran towards the terminal room.

“Come on, Church,” Carolina growled as they dashed into the room. “Nap time’s over.”

There was no response.

“Come on, asshole,” Grif huffed, walking over and knocking on the terminal a few times. “These idiots won't let us eat that stupid cake unless you’re there.”

Another moment of silence.

“Why isn’t he responding?” Donut asked, worried.

“I don’t know,” Carolina responded, equally worried, even though Donut had directed the question at Caboose. The aforementioned blue soldier walked over to the terminal, took the back off, and started tinkering.

“What the hell are you doing?” Carolina asked as she rushed over to make sure the blue idiot didn’t break anything.

“Hard recalling Church!” Caboose cheered. “Like I did on the memory unitard! It is how I always win hide and seek! Though Church prefers hide and don’t seek…”

“Oh, I love a good hard recall!” Donut giggled, causing Grif to take a few steps away from him. Within a few second, Caboose closed the panel and Church’s hologram appeared, gasping for air like he had been drowning.

“Caboose, how many times do I have to tell you to not fucking do that?” Church yelled, calming down. “And… thank you.”

“Of course!” Caboose cheered, a real smile underneath his helmet. “I’ll always come get you!”

“Yeah, buddy, I know,” Church sighed.

“Why weren't you responding?” Carolina asked, attempting to push Caboose out of the way. He barely budged, so he muttered under his breath something no one heard and moved out of the way. He moved back to stand near Donut.

“Bitch,” Grif whispered to Caboose and Donut, causing the hidden freelancers to smirk behind their visors.

“I was attacked by hackers or something,” Church growled, pulling up a holographic screen. “They didn’t tamper with anything, but they headed straight for the memory core. I managed to hold them off, but I had to lock myself in the core. They didn’t get anything, but I should probably run a diagnostic on the system.”

“Do it on the way back to the bunks,” Grif whined. “These two idiots made you a birthday cake and won’t let us eat it without you.”

“But it’s not my…,” Epsilon trailed off as he checked his internal calendar. “Holy shit, today is the day I was split from Alpha!”

“Happy birthday, Church!” Caboose exclaimed, ignoring the glare Donut gave him. It wasn’t his fault that he had to cover for the clumsy grenadier.

“How did you know it was my birthday?” Church questioned. Not even Carolina knew.

“Yeah… you told me you had three birthdays,” Caboose shrugged, trailing off.

“Duh,” Donut agreed, nodding. “Your’s, Alpha’s, and that Director guy’s.”

Carolina chuckled. “Sounds like a very Church thing to say.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Church sighed, not remembering that conversation. Though, it probably got lost in his Caboose filter. “Let’s just go.”

“Finally!” Grif yelled, showing them towards the door. Carolina just managed to grab Epsilon out of the terminal before the orange soldier pushed her and Donut away. Caboose had already walked towards the door. “Come on, the faster we get there, the faster I can eat that cake and go to sleep.”

“Okay!” Caboose cheered, picking Grif up with one hand and running towards the barracks. Carolina sighed at the blue idiot’s antics as she shoved Epsilon in her AI slot and ran after him, but true be told, Caboose did it because he was sick of Grif’s complaining and just wanted to go to bed.

“My turn to ride Caboose!” Donut chuckled, sprinting up and jumping on Caboose’s back. He was still tired from the run outside the city and knew Caboose wouldn’t complain. Carolina facepalmed and Grif hit Donut in the shoulder. Nevertheless, the soldiers started the run back to their barracks.


	3. Put Me Down You Idiot!

“How is he so much faster while carrying a person and Grif?”Carolina huffed as she trailed a couple meters behind Caboose.

“I heard that!” Grif yelled, still stuck in Caboose’s grasp.

“You guys are actually running about the same speed,” Church explained, “his stride is almost double your’s, though.”

“Could you-”

“I’m not activating your speed unit so you can win a race against Caboose,” Church interrupted her. “It’s not worth it. Besides, your leg is still healing. You’re not going to rip your stitches in a race against, and I’ll explain this one last time, FUCKING CABOOSE!”

Carolina just growled and increased her own speed to a sprint. No matter how fast she ran, though, Caboose’s pace kept increasing to match.

“Why… is he … so fast?” Carolina huffed again. This time, Church didn’t answer. He was busy running a system diagnostic on the capital’s systems from Carolina’s hemet. Nothing missing, nothing tampered with, and all of the security footage was clean. If anything was messed with, it was hidden better than any human could do.

‘The hackers must have wanted data,’ Church thought, shrugging off the situation. He’d run a more thorough check in the morning while the others were at training, but it could wait for now. He decided to refocus on the the sim troopers and Carolina and almost laughed at the ridiculous sight.

Carolina was going full tilt and decided to try to make it past the large, blue soldier on a corner. What she hadn’t taken into consideration was Caboose’s reach. As soon as she tried to get past him, he snapped out is arm, grabbed her around the waist like Grif, and draped her on his other shoulder. She was punched and kicked, trying to break free, but the blue idiot had her in a vice like grip. Church knew from experience that the only thing that could get someone out of one of Caboose’s famous holds was to ask nicely, something Carolina couldn’t even try to attempt until she calmed down.

That’s how they entered the barracks. A nearly asleep Grif trying to take a nap in one hand and a feral Carolina in the other with Donut on his back. The situation they entered into was equally ridiculous. Simmons stood guard in front of the fridge while Sarge had a thrashing Tucker pinned to the floor. Wash, having been woken by the constant yell of profanity that was coming from Tucker’s mouth, was attempting to fall back asleep on a bar stool and failing.

“Just give me the fucking cake,” Tucker grunted as he struggled against Sarge’s grip on his arms and attempted to buck the older man off with his hips.

“Why does all the fun happen without me?” Donut pouted, hopping off of Caboose’s back. Tucker and the Reds looked towards the new arrivals and Church appeared in hologram forms.

“Thank God,” Wash groaned, flopping up in his chair.

“Church help me!” Tucker cried, struggling some more.

“You kidding? This is perfect blackmail,” Church chuckled, making a holographic camera appear in his hands. Sarge and Tucker realized the position they were in and quickly got up. Tucker made a run at Church and smacked at the camera, only for his hand to pass right through.

“Still just a hologram,” Church smirked, making the camera disappear.

“Asshole,” Tucker grumbled.

“At least I got to ride Caboose,” Donut sighed, causing everyone to take a step away from him and shake their heads. When Caboose shook his head, one of Carolina’s random swings hit the mouth guard of his helmet, causing cracks to form along his visor. A small piece fell out, large enough to see the vivid blue of one of Caboose’s eyes.

“Son of a bitch!” yelled everyone as Caboose dropped Grif and Carolina.

“What the fuck, C?” Church yelled.

“You broke the helmet Wash gave him!” Donut whined.

“Caboose I… I’m sorry,” Carolina stumbled over her words. Caboose didn’t respond. Instead, he walked over to the fridge, grabbed the cake, and sat it on top of the table. He turned back to the other soldiers, his eye glaring at them through the small chip, and sulked out of the room.

“I’m going to go get him a new helmet,” Donut whispered, chasing after him. Once the two of them were out of hearing range, everyone turned and glared at Carolina.

“And I repeat, what the fuck, C?” Church yelled, crossing his holographic arms.

“I said I was sorry,” she muttered.

“It’s all fun and games until someone cracks a visor,” Sarge huffed.

“Seriously, what were you thinking?” Wash sighed, now fully awake.

“Yeah, doing something like that to Caboose is like… lighting a bag full of puppies unfire in front of a toddler,” Tucker ranted.

“Yeah, a seven foot tall, indestructible toddler,”Grif muttered, earning an elbow to the side from Simmons.

“What do you want from me?” Carolina huffed, crossing her arms. “ I don’t like being manhandled by morons.”

“Well, first off, your coming with Caboose and me to the crash to get him a new helmet,” Wash started.

“Fi-”

“And you have to help me with the Reds and Blues’ training in the morning.  
“What?” the Reds and Blues yelled.

“What?” Carolina growled.

“We can yell at Wash for it later,”Grif groaned. “Let’s just eat the cake before I fall asleep.”

“I got this,” Tucker smirked, fumbling his sword out of his sweat pants pocket. Turns out that cake is highly flammable. Needless to say, nobody got anything except Tucker, who got a few cracked ribs.

 

_“Hey, Cal,” Wash asked the blue giant in the rec. room while munching on potato chips. “How come you and Rhode have different helmets than HI and Kan? The only other other soldiers that have custom armor are Carolina, Connie, Florida, and Maine.”_

_Cal looked up from his assault rifle which he had been cleaning. The director had given each part of his personal guard a group of freelancers to monitor. They had managed to intercept messages from Charon Industries to the ship. Yes, they knew that there was no Insurrection. The Director had chosen his guard for a reason, their undying loyalty being one of many qualifying factors. Cal had been given CT and Wash to watch. He had already reported his findings on CT to the Director and the plan was to make her disappear after the next mission. Something about the finding the Insurrection leader in space._

_He glanced across the room to Rhode, who was chatting up Maine as Wyoming tried to chat her up. She was supposed to keep an eye on those two, not get another date with Maine. As long as she kept an eye on them though, Cal was fine with whoever she dated. Kan had been watching South and Carolina from a distance, utilizing her sniping skills. Her interactions with South had been more than successful and she had managed to get a few sparring sessions with Carolina. HI was off with York and North, drinking some beer the three had snuck onboard at the last refuel point. Choosing him to watch those two had been a stroke of genius on the Counselor's part. Cal sighed and turned back to Wash._

_“We got to choose because of our previous experiences,” Cal explained. “Florida requested to keep his old ODST armor and Connie was a disgraced ONI investigator. Maine got his as a deal and Carolina … has known the Director for a long time.”_

_“What do you mean about Carolina?” Wash pressed, offering Cal some chips. Cal shook his head in denial and started putting his rifle back together._

_“That is not my place to say. It’s Carolina’s,” Cal sighed._

_“Fine, then what about you and Rhode?” Wash huffed back. Cal sat up and looked him in the visor. Out of all of the Freelancers, his squad had always seen Wash as the little brother of the project. They made sure to watch out for him and he was happy that they didn’t make him take his helmet off. Not that they took their helmets off either._

_“Why don’t you take a guess?” Cal suggested, a smirk on his lips. Wash paused for a moment._

_“What’s in it for me?” Wash asked, smirking back._

_“A hundred bucks and a secret,” Cal said, extending his hand._

_“Deal,” Wash agreed, shaking the hand._


	4. To be an Idiot in Hiding

Once Caboose exited the kitchen, his depressed stulk became a furious march towards his bunk. He couldn’t care less if anyone saw. His room was in the middle of the hall, the line that Sarge had painted dividing the Red and Blue rooms between his and Donut’s doors.

He rapidly typed in his password, his door sliding open a little too slow for him as he shoved in out of the way. He rushed inside and the door closed behind him with a noticeable thunk. Once he knew he was away from prying eyes, he ripped off his damaged helmet and threw it at the wall, maybe a little too hard. The helmet embedded itself in the wall and the visor broke into a million little pieces. With a sigh, he grabbed the small dustpan and broom Kan had given him after she got tired of him asking if she knew where one was. It wasn’t his fault that his more dangerous projects tended to blow up or that the custodial supplies weren’t near his work area.

“So…” came the small chuckle as a lime green hologram appeared over the terminal on the workbench, “did you send the signal?”

Caboose sighed and bent down to sweep up the shattered visor. “Yeah, they’ll be here within the week. Carolina destroyed my voice filter, though.”

“How the hell did she do that?” the AI smirked. Caboose finished sweeping the glass shards into his pan and glared at the AI as he walked over to the garbage can and dumped the shards in.

“Don’t act like you weren't watching the cameras,” Caboose sighed. “You’re a terrible liar, Omicron.”

“Yeah, well deceit was Gamma,” Omicron joked. “I’m just the humor trying to lighten the situation.”

“Are the new filters done?” Caboose sighed, changing the subject.

“Duh,” Omicron chuckled, crossing his arms. “Finished the coding after Chi and I did our parts. Didn’t think you’d be using them this soon, though.”

Caboose nodded and carefully started taking off his armor. It was almost impossible to do solo, but Caboose had plenty of experience. First the arms, then the chest, and then the legs. He peeled the armor and black skin suit he wore under it in the corner and put on an old pair of grey sweatpants and a black tank top.

He then went over to his workbench and sat on the old swivel chair. It squeaked under his weight as he sat down and he made a mental note to work on it later. Despite the cleanness of his room, the workbench was the exception, the small metal desk covered in broken machines and scavenged parts. The only other furniture in the room was his regulation twin size bed that was a little small for him and an old leather couch he and Donut had found behind an abandoned apartment complex on patrol.

He reached over to the terminal on the corner of his desk that he had tapped into the main network and disconnected two microchips. Opening his desk draw, he grabbed two packs of band-aids, one to match his tan skin and one to match Donut’s pale skin. A knock sounded at the door, followed by the sound of the door opening and closing.

“Hey,” Donut sighed, flopping onto the couch.

“You know, usually after people knock, they wait for a ‘Come In,’” Omi chuckled, crossing his arms.

“You know you’d never refuse me,” smirked a purple AI that appeared over Donut’s head.

“You know, for coming from the same AI, you two bicker like an old married couple,” Donut grumbled. He ignored Omi sticking out his tounge and the other AI giving him the finger, and threw something at Caboose, who still had his back turned. Caboose turned at the last second and caught the Blue Mark VI helmet.

“Thanks, HI,” he sighed. “ Do you want to test the new modifiers?”

“I guess,” HI shrugged, hoisting himself up to sit on the arm of the couch, “but will Chi be able to use it? I’m not as good with the innuendos as he is, and I know you can’t act as stupid as Omi, Cal.”

“Hey!” Omi yelled, causing HI to laugh and Cal to shake his head.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Chi smirked. “I’ll make sure to ‘fill you in.’”

“Why!” HI yelled, swatting at the purple hologram. Cal just sighed and started to open a band-aid.

“Sorry, but I couldn’t connect them directly to our neural networks. They’ll only be able to operate them when our helmets are on,” Cal explained, placing the microchip on the band-aid then attaching it to his throat.

“Who’s idea was it to pretend to be idiots again?” HI groaned, taking off his helmet and snatching his bandaids and microchip from Cal.

“It worked, didn’t it?” Omi smirked, trying to elbow Chi in the side and failing. The purple hologram gave his green counterpart a glare, but nodded.

“True, no one would ever think sexualy ambiguous Donut and innocent Caboose are womanizing Hawaii and merciless California,” Chi agreed.

“Yeah, yeah, but we were only supposed to be protecting Alpha for a few months, a year at most,” HI sighed. “Not twelve and a half years protecting Alpha and Beta, then Epsilon, Wash, and Carolina.”

“The Director’s final wish was for us to protect Carolina and Epsilon and I refuse to let Wash get hurt,” Cal huffed. “Besides, you know that you’d give your life for any of the Reds.”

Hi remained silent as Cal pressed on the bandaid and cleared his throat.

“Test, test. 1 2 3, 1 2 3,” Cal said, testing his new modifier. “How do I sound?”

“Like a depressed idiot,” HI yawned.

“Damn, guess it didn’t work,” Omicron joked. Cal glared at him, but said nothing.

“You should go to bed. We have training in four hours,” Cal said, handing Hi his chip and box of band-aids.

“Right,” HI agreed. He placed his chip on as well then sighed. “Has it really been over twelve years? You would think that they would notice that we’ve never taken our helmets off.”

“They have,” Cal said, turning his chip off. “Have you seen the betting pools?”

“They’re betting on us now?” HI asked, amused. Cal nodded.

“Everything from when they’ll come off to hair color to gender,” Cal smirked.

“The gender one is about me, isn’t it?” HI huffed, crossing his arms.

Cal actually laughed at that one. “Good night, HI.”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow,” HI sighed, shaking his head and jumping off the couch with a grunt. He put back on his helmet and quickly exited the room.

Cal got up from his chair and stretched before climbing into bed.

“Good night, Cal,” Omi whispered, shutting down for the night, his hologram disappearing.

“Night, Omi,” Caboose groaned, falling to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

  


_“Maine,” Carolina called to the larger soldier. She had been looking for him everywhere and had finally managed to corner him down the science hallway while he was talking to another agent. Rhode Island, if Carolina remembered correctly. “I need a sparring partner and you are the only one off duty right now. Let’s go.”_

_Maine let out an exasperated growl, but started to follow her as she turned to leave._

_“Not so fast,” Rhode Island deadpanned, grabbing Maine’s shoulder to hold him back. “Tonight is the only day the two of us have free at the same time for two week, and Maine already promised to take me out tonight.”_

_Maine looked in between the two female soldier. Despite having the outward appearance of a registered bad ass, not even he wanted to get in between his team leader and his girlfriend. He tried to inch away, but Rhode’s grasp on his shoulder was firm. He could feel Sigma’s curiosity flaring at this new development, but luckily he stayed silent._

_“He can go out with you after we train,” Carolina growled, sizing up the other girl, even though Rhode was over a foot taller than her._

_“Actually, I have some rather… strenuous activities planned for him tonight and would rather if he had plenty of energy,” Rhode smirked, her hand trailing from Maine’s shoulder to his back. Maine could feel a his ears burning at what Rhode was implying, but he made no noise._

_“Why you-”_

_“Hold up,” came a voice from one of the labs off to the side. Out came a large soldier in blue Mark V armor. Carolina actually remembered the stoic giant, Agent California, better than she remembered his sister._

_“I’ll spar with you if you let the two just go on their date already,” Cal huffed, cleaning some grease off on his gauntlets with a dirty rag. Carolina thought about it for a moment. While it was true that mostly everyone of her usual sparring partners were on duty, she had asked Maine so she could spar against someone unusually strong. She also recalled that Cal was stronger than Maine._

_“Deal,” Carolina nodded. She then turned on her heels and started on her way back to the training rooms. “Come on.”_

_Despite her back being turned, she still heard Rhode’s next words._

_“Thanks, Michael,” she sighed, giving Cal a hug. “Oh, and go easy on her. The Director wouldn’t take kindly to his daughter being in the hospital wing.”_

_Cal’s footsteps started after her after that, but Carolina was preoccupied. They knew? She knew that they were her father’s guards, but she hadn’t thought that he’d be so open with then. What else did they know?_


	5. Not the Best Way to Manage your Anger

After rushing through breakfast, the Reds and Blues and their lieutenants all gathered in the training room, leaning against each other half asleep. The lieutenants had guard detail till one a.m. when the Federation troops traded out with them and the others had been kept up even later cleaning up the remains of the burnt cake.

Simmons and Grif were leaning against each other almost asleep and Sarge kept nodding off then snapping awake with his shotgun aimed at Grif. Tucker was still holding his ribs from last night’s events, hoping Carolina wouldn’t take out her anger on him during training. Bitters and Paloma had both given up and laid down on the floor. The only one completely awake was Caboose. He was standing still as Donut leaned on his right side and Smith on his left. Leaning on Smith was Jensen, the maroon lieutenant too tired to be embarrassed. After about five minutes, half asleep Wash and yawning Carolina managed to show up.

“About time,” Grif grumbled, earning a punch to the shoulder from Sarge.

“Alright,” Carolina sighed, taking lead on the training today. She wasn’t going to let the fact that she had to train with these idiots undermine her own training. “We’re all still tired after last night’s events, so we are going to start with basic warm ups before we start the real training. Five laps!”

A series of groans swept the crowd as they started running. Caboose finished first, much to Carolina’s annoyment, with her in second followed by a tie in third between Wash and Smith. The other soldiers all finished in good time, except Grif and Bitters who walked the last three laps. Next were push-ups for five minutes, then pull-ups, then sit-ups, and finally , Carolina’s personal favorite, burpees. Despite numerous complaints from various sim troopers (Tucker and Grif) about how their arms were falling off, Carolina assigned them another five laps around the gym before they were aloud to collapse against the wall. Despite most of them breathing hard, they were relatively fine.

“I … am going to … die,” Grif panted, collapsing into a puddle as Simmons patted him on the back.

“Quit your bellyaching, dirtbag,” Sarge huffed, sliding his back against the wall. Donut chuckled to himself at their antics as he leaned against the wall. Caboose shook his head and turned his attention towards Wash and Carolina.

“Some of them need endurance training, but they’re managed to hold up better than I expected,” Carolina muttered to Wash, who nodded.

“Despite their complaints, they really are trying,” Wash agreed.

Caboose frowned slightly under his helmet. The sim troopers had advanced their skills over the last few years, but they still had a long way to go. Despite having seen that they have luck to rival Chief, luck only ever took anyone so far.

“Okay,” Carolina said, clapping her hands to get their attention. “Wash told me that you guys have been focusing on your aim for the last few weeks. While some of you haven’t improved at all, Palomo, I decided that you could all use some practice at hand to hand.”

“One at a time you will come forward and fight Carolina. Whoever stays in the middle of the room for three minutes gets to skip tomorrow’s training,” Wash explained.

“Otherwise known as Carolina’s anger management,” Donut muttered. Caboose, Smith, and Jensen all heard him. Smith and Jensen had to restrain a series of chuckles while Caboose smirked behind his new helmet. Out of all the people on Chorus, the only three people that knew Caboose and Donut’s were Freelancers were Smith, Jensen, and Doctor Grey. Caboose had told Smith so he would have an accomplice when Donut was supposedly captured and Smith had asked to tell Jensen when the two started dating. Doctor Grey had found out when she gave everyone physicals and notice Donut’s augmentations and Caboose’s… everything. The three of them swore to keep their secret and had covered for them on more than one occasion. 

“Up first,” Carolina announced, scanning the gathered soldiers, “is Palomo.”

“What? Why-” Palomo didn’t get to say anything else as he was shoved to the middle of the gym and fell flat on his face. Carolina hoisted him up by his arm and reared back her arm. Palomo screamed like a girl as her fist made contact with his helmet and sent him flying to the opposite wall.

“Congratulations, Palomo, you lasted 8 seconds,” Wash smirked, holding back a chuckle. Tucker, however, burst out laughing. Wash smiled as he glanced at the aqua sim trooper. “You’re next, Tucker.”

Tucker’s laughter stopped as he glared at Washington. With a gulp, Tucker walked forward until he was a few feet from Carolina and got into a fighting pose. Carolina chuckled, cracking her knuckles and neck in a way that gave Tucker flashbacks to Tex beating him up. With a shudder, Tucker braced himself as Carolina charged him. He managed to dodge the first few hits, but the table quickly turned in Carolina’s favor. If there was one thing that the Reds and Blues could do, though, it was take a hit. Carolina got frustrated that Tucker had managed to tank her punched and kicked him in the groin.

“Son of a bitch,” Tucker groaned, collapsing to the ground grasping his manhood. Carolina smirked down at the womanizing soldier.

“Had enough?” She smirked, crossing her arms.

“Depends. Hey Wash, what’s my time?” Tucker grunted as he slowly got to his feet.

“Two minutes and forty-seven seconds!” Wash yelled.

“Uh,” Tucker glanced at Carolina, then Wash, then ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction. Carolina chased after him, and almost caught him when Wash yelled for them to stop.

“Time!” Wash yelled. A series of cheers swept through the Reds, Blues, and lieutenants as Tucker headed towards the wall Palomo was waiting on. “Next is Grif.”

“Wait, what? Why do I have to get in the ring with a pissed off Carolina?” Grif yelled. Everyone looked at Carolina. Her fists were clenched and she was shaking in rage.

“Either get in the ring, or you can run more laps,” Wash sighed, knowing Grif was doomed. Grif seemed to think about it for a moment, then walked over to Carolina and braced himself for death. With a growl, Carolina ran forward and kicked Grif as hard as she could in the chest plate. The orange soldier flew back and embedded in the wall above Palomo and Tuckers head. Tucker wasn’t phased, but Palomo squealed like a mouse.

“I fucking hate you, Palomo,” Tucker huffed, crossing his arms and sliding down the wall.

“Can someone help me down?” Grif whined, kicking his feet like a toddler.

“Caboose, Smith, can you two get him down? Bitters, you’re next,” Wash sighed,going over to help with getting Grif down. Caboose and Smith crossed the room and met up with Wash. 

“Caboose, give me a boost. Smith, grab his legs,” Wash groaned, getting deja vu to when Doc was stuck in a wall. Speaking of which, where was Doc? Wash shook off that train of thought. He was probably fine. Smith did as ordered as Caboose bent down on his hands and knees so Wash could use him as a stool.

“You don’t try to kill us any more and are not as bossy, so that is good,” Caboose grunted as Wash stepped on his back.

“What?” Wash asked, his eyebrows arched, not that anyone could see them.

“Not a moral boost, bluetard,” Sarge yelled over. Wash sighed and started to pull on Grif’s chest armor.

“Heads up!” Tucker yelled as he and Palomo hit the deck. Smith dropped as well and Caboose yanked Wash’s foot causing the Freelancer to trip. Bitters flew over their heads, hitting Grif. The two wider soldiers peeled off the wall and fell on their fellow soldiers. Bitters landed on Palomo, but Caboose managed to roll onto his back and flip to his feet to catch Grif and keep him from landing on Wash.

“Thanks, Caboose,” Wash sighed, secretly glad that the large idiot was protective of his friends.

“No problem, Agent Washingtub,” Caboose sighed back, setting the now unconscious Grif down next to the knocked out Palomo and Bitters. 

“Smith, it’s your turn,” Wash announced, turning towards the taller soldier. 

“Yes, sir,” Smith said with a salute before walking up into the center of the room. Carolina had gotten most of her anger out on the orange soldier, but she was still pissed. As soon as Smith was close enough, Carolina charged him. She brought up her leg, kneed him in the gut, and sent him flying up in the air. Everyone winced as he made contact with the ceiling then ground. Smith let out a small grunt, but was otherwise fine and stood up shaking his head.

“How’d he take that hit?” Tucker whispered to Wash.

“He’s Caboose’s lieutenant,” Wash whispered back. “Of course he would have to have a high pain tolerance.”

Caboose glared at both of them through his visor, but he would admit that he had soldiers with plenty of endurance on his unit. Carolina ran at Smith again, before he could get his wits back, and planted a foot in to middle of his chest plate. Smith tumbled across the room, skidding to a stop near the wall. Jensen gasped and was about to run over when Smith shakingly sat up. With a sigh of relief, Jensen relaxed.

“Sorry, Smith. Only 57 seconds,” Wash signed, patting him on the back. “Jensen, your turn.”

With a small gulp and a pat on the back from Simmons, Jensen went up to Carolina. Carolina dropped into a defensive position and gestured for Jensen to come at her. Jensen froze and paled. Then, she bolted.

With a small squeal, Jensen started to run away. Carolina shook her head, knocking herself out of her stupor and chased after her. After thirty seconds, Carolina was close to catching her when she collapsed breathing hard. 

“Fuck,” Smith muttered, standing, despite being exhausted, and running to her. Caboose and Wash followed him.

“Is she okay?” Carolina asked as Smith skid to a stop next to Jensen.

“She just needs her inhaler,” Smith sighed, pulling a small, maroon inhaler from a compartment on his armor. Yanking of her helmet to reveal mousy brown hair, glasses, and a freckled face, Smith brought the inhaler to her mouth and pressed down. After around twenty second, Jensen breathed again, deeply.

A series of claps and woops sounded from the soldiers that weren’t unconscious. 

“Good work, Smith,” Wash said, laying a hand on his shoulder.

“Thank you, sir. May I escort her to the medical bay?” Smith asked, propping Jensen up and helping her stand.

“Of course,” Wash said with a nod. He then turned towards Tucker. “Tucker, can you help escort both of them to Doctor Grey?”

“A chance to get out of a room with a pissed off Carolina? Hell yeah,” Tucker smirked, ignoring Carolina’s glare. Together, Tucker and Smith hoisted Jensen in between them and quickly exited the gym.

“Alright, Sarge?” Wash sighed once they were gone, heading towards the opposite wall. Caboose headed back to the other soldiers and stood next to Donut.

“Is Jensen good?” Donut muttered to Simmons and Caboose as Sarge entered the middle.

“Just a small atheist attack,” Caboose supplied. “Smith always has an inhalants for her.”

“I’m going to assume you mean asthma and inhaler,”Simmons sighed. “Those two do seem pretty close, though.

“Well, they are dating,” Donut said with a shrug.

“What!” Simmons yelled, getting the attention of Carolina and Wash and letting Sarge get out of the choke hold that Carolina had him in. 

“Fuck!” Carolina cursed as she chased after Sarge again.

“How did you two know that?” Simmons muttered sharply. “I didn’t even know that and I’m her CO.”

“Smith told me,” Caboose cheered.

“Yeah, Smith tells him everything,” Donut said, tilting his head. “Maybe you should talk to your subordinates more?”

“Shut up, Donut,” Simmons said, wondering.

“Three minutes!” Wash yelled, interrupting their conversation. “Simmons.”

“Hot dogs!” Sarge cheered through the head lock Carolina had him in. Slowly, she released him.

“Did someone say hot dogs?” Grif said, groggy as he sat up. Everyone shook their head.

“Shut up, numbnuts,” Sarge growled, sluggin him in the shoulder had plopping down next to him.

Nervously, Simmons made his way over to Carolina. Despite being pissed that Sarge had managed to last three minutes as well, Carolina decided to be merciful as she charged.

“Oh shi-” Simmons was cut off as her fist connected to his helmet and sent him flying towards the wall, where he landed on Grif.

“Uh… four seconds,” Wash groaned slightly at Carolina’s anger getting the better of her. “Donut.”

“Wish me luck,” Donut muttered, walking forward. Once Carolina deemed him close enough, she charged. Donut bit his lip to keep himself from cursing. She aimed a fist at his collar bone, but he backhanded it away and ducked under her spin kick. He took a step backward and tried to punch her back, only for her to grab his arm and flip him on his back. She let go of him so she could kick him, but he stood up and dashed out of her range. He ran over to Caboose, Carolina close on his heels and started running around Caboose,  the larger soldier providing decent cover. Carolina growled as she lost sight of him and stopped to look around. Standing on top of Caboose’s shoulder was Donut. The other Red’s let loose their laughter once she noticed. With a furious yell, Carolina launched herself up Caboose and delivered an uppercut to Donut’s helmet. Clattering to a stop a few feet away, Donut slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes. Wait a minute… 

Donut snapped out of his daze as he realized that his helmet was missing. Glancing around, he saw it had landed at Wash’s feet. The grey and yellow freelancer slowly picked up the helmet, his gaze staying on Donut the whole time. Carolina sat slowly on Caboose’s shoulder. She could feel how tense he had become.

“Fuck,” Grif muttered. “I just lost like fifty bets.”

The tension broke and everyone rushed to Donut. 

“Are you okay?” Simmons asked

“Did you hit your head?” Sarge huffed

“What happened to your face?” Grif questioned, earning a bitch slap from Simmons.

“Oh my god! His head flew off!” Omi yelled for Cal, taking over.

Donut sighed and grabbed his helmet from Wash with a small thank you.

“I’m fine, no, I didn’t hit my head, an incident in basics, Tex’s grenade in Blood Gulch, and we already had this talk about helmets not being the same as heads, Caboose,” Donut supplied.

“Tex is the one that scared your face,” Carolina growled, still sitting on top of Caboose

“And an incident with a car bomb in basic,” Donut shrugged, placing his helmet back on to hide his missing ear and brutally scarred half of his face.

“Well, I… uh… guess it’s Caboose turn,” Wash nervously chuckled as Grif helped Donut to his feet. The Reds all walked back to the wall with Wash as Carolina jumped down from Caboose’s shoulder.

“My turn for what?” Omi asked, nervously trying to stall until Cal calmed down.

“To fight,” Wash sighed.

“Fight who?” Omi asked again, restraining Cal from moving.

“Carolina,” Wash huffed.

“North or South,” Cal nearly growled as he regained control and his stance tightened. HI gulped, realizing that Cal was back and he was pissed. 

“South, right?” Wash questioned, glancing at Carolina. Carolina rolled her eyes and ran at Caboose. Caboose turned towards her as she reared back her fist and aimed an jab at his chest plate. She heard various gasps as her fist met his palm with a loud bang. His larger hand closed around her’s like a vise. She tried to pull back, but couldn’t. He lifted her into the air to attempt to throw her, but she used the momentum to wrap her legs around his helmet. She brought her fists down on top of his helmet, only her him to reach up and try to yank her off. She held on as well as she could, but he managed to get his arms around her waist. She went sailing across the room, but not before her hand wrapped around a small metal chain. 

A groan escaped Carolina as her back hit the far wall. She slid down until she was sitting next to Wash. She opened her eyes to see Wash standing in between her and a pissed off Caboose.

“Easy there, buddy,” Wash chuckled nervously as Caboose leaned over him. “What’s got you mad?”

“She decapitated Commander Croissant and took my doggy tags,” Omi supplied as he fought to take Cal over again. 

“She didn’t mean to, buddy,” Wash sighed, reaching down to help Carolina up. Donut reached for her other hand. Together, they pulled her to her feet, but Donut managed to grab the chain from her hand. 

“Here, Caboose,” Donut sighed, handing the dog tags to Caboose. Cal snached the tags from HI, and stormed out of the room, the pink soldier on his heels. Once they were gone, Grif said what they were all thinking.

“What… the fuck?” Grif muttered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not my best chapter, but it had to happen to progress the story. Hope you liked it.


	6. We’re boned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it’s a little later than I wanted, but it is by far my longest chapter. Hope you enjoy.

_“So… how do you want to do this?” Cal asked, rolling his shoulders which sent loud pops echoing throughout the training room. “Paint guns, stun batons?”_

_Carolina shrugged slightly, still thrown off that he knew she was the Director’s daughter. “I prefer hand to hand.”_

_Cal shrugged back. “That will work. Since you wanted to spar against Maine, I assume you want me to act using brute strength?”_

_“Just fight like yourself,” Carolina suggested, crossing her arms. “Neither of us should hold back.”_

_“Deal,” Cal huffed. “No enhancements?”_

_“No enhancements,” Carolina agreed_

_“Aw,” whined the lime green hologram that appeared over Cal’s head._

_Carolina shook her head. Great, another AI. “So you have one ,too?”_

_“Duh,” the AI chuckled, floating over to her like he was swimming. “Names, Omicron, but peeps call me Omi. I’m the comedian of the family.”_

_The AI extended his hand for her to shake, but Carolina didn’t move._

_“Not one for shaking hands, are ya?” Omi chuckled, withdrawing his hand._

_“Not when I’ll just pass through,” Carolina monotoned._

_Omicron chuckled again. “A smart one, rare quality on this ship, eh Cal?”_

_“Omicron, go offline until the match is over,” Cal huffed, crossing his arms like Carolina._

_“Wow, full name and everything. I best be going, see ya,” Omi laughed, waving at Carolina before disappearing into thin air. The two soldiers stood in silence._

_“Let me guess,” Carolina said, breaking the ice.” His quirk is never shutting up.”_

_“He’s humor,” Cal said with a smirk._

_“Close enough,” Carolina smirked back, then took a fighting stance. “You ready?”_

_With a sharp nod from Cal, the fight began. They started by circling each other for a few seconds, but it was proved that Cal had a lot more patients than Carolina as she was the first to charge. She advanced forward and swung at his chest, but he took a step back out of her range. Grabbing her extended arm, Cal pulled her close and flipped her on her back._

_“Match goes to Agent California,” F.I.L.S.S. said over the com system. Carolina growled as she slowly sat up. Cal extended his hand to help her stand, but she batted it away._

_“Let’s go again,” Carolina huffed, getting to her feet. Cal shrugged and took a combat stance. Carolina raised her fists and charged at Caboose. She feinted a punch to his helmet, and crouched down to do a sweeping kick. Her leg hit his with a resounding clang, but instead of him falling, he used her momentum to twist into a crouch. Carolina flipped to her feet followed by Cal, then she tried to scissor kick him. He blocked the kick with his forearm and punched Carolina in the chestplate, sending her flying back into a tumble. She stopped after about ten feet with a groan._

_“Match goes to Agent California,” F.I.L.S.S. said in her eternally perky voice._

_“You okay?” Cal asked, walking over and extending his hand. This time, Carolina accepted._

_“Fine,” she huffed, standing and holding her side with one hand. “Let’s go another round.”_

_“I don’t think so,” Cal sighed, supporting her with one arm. “You can barely stand. I think I might have broke a rib or two.”_

_“I’ve had worse,” she growl, shaking off his hand. Once she lost the support, though, she stumbled a little and nearly fell. Cal caught her in time._

_“Sorry, Carolina,” Cal sighed, then picked her up bridal style._

_“What the hell are you doing?” Carolina growled, punching his chest several times in an attempt to get loose._

_“Taking you to the med bay,” Cal huffed. “Also, you better save your strength. I’ve had to drag Rhode to the med bay and, no offense, you don’t hit as hard as she does.”_

_With a sigh, Carolina crossed her arms and let the blue giant take her to the med bay._

 

    “You did what!” yelled Tucker. The Reds and freelancers had regrouped in the Red and Blue’s kitchen to tell Tucker what had happened.

    “It was an accident,” Wash said, defending Carolina.

    “How was I supposed to know he would go ballistic or that he even had tags?” Carolina asked, sitting at one of the stools. Everyone except Wash was out of armor nursing their wounds with the countless ice packs they kept in the freezer. The only ones missing were Caboose, Donut, and Church. Donut had disappeared with Caboose and Church had taken over the security cameras to try and find the two.

    “Not many of us sim troopers do, but those who have tags take them very seriously,” Sarge huffed, messing with his own tags around his neck.

    “Those who have tags were in the military before Blood Gulch,” Simmons explained. “Sarge used to be an ODST.”

    It was subtle, but Carolina saw Sarge’s grasp on his dog tags tighten.

    “Really?” Wash asked. “What happened?”

    “Entire platoon died,” Sarge huffed. “I was in charge. One moment were fighting a buncha blue Elites, next I’m trying out to be Sargent over Blood Gulch.”

    “And Donut was a marine,” Grif added, steering the conversation away from Sarge to make the old soldier more comfortable. “He said he was charged for destroying UNSC property on a kamikaze run to kill a squad of Brutes. It was either go to Blood Gulch or prison.”

    “Really?” Carolina said, raising an eyebrow in disbelief. “No offense, but he seems more likely to throw a tea party for the Brutes than take out a squad.

    “Well, what about Caboose?” Wash asked, handing Carolina another ice pack for her shoulder.

    “Who knows?” Simmons shrugged. “Even if he understands the question, he is very secretive about it.”

    Wash and Carolina looked at eachother, but shrugged it off.

    “Wanna join the betting pool?” Grif asked. “I’ve got money on Caboose having accidentally killed his entire platoon.”

    “And I bet that he’s secretly a chick,” Tucker shrugged.

    “You made that same bet on Donut, neither of them are chicks,” Simmons groaned.

    “Can’t you just let me have hope?” Tucker fake whined. Carolina stood up and punched Tucker in the shoulder. Tucker pouted and rubbed his shoulder while Wash barely stopped himself from laughing at their antics.

    “I think he is part robot and he’s dumb because he’s malfunctioning,” Simmons explained.

    “Simmons, don’t even go into the ‘How Caboose Became Dumb’ pool,” Grif groaned.

    “Sorry,” Simmons huffed, not at all sorry.

    “Those have to be the… dumbest answers ever. Of all time,” Wash said laughing so hard he had to sit on Carolina’s now empty stool. He took off his helmet to rub his eyes before he could start crying from his laughter.

    “Just wait until you hear Sarge’s,” Grif smirked, crossing his arms and glancing at Sarge.

    “It makes perfect sense!” Sarge growled, wishing he had his shotgun to point at Grif.

    “Dude, there’s no way,” Tucker chuckled.

    “Don’t worry, sir. It’s more believable that Caboose being a girl,” Simmons said. Sarge just grumbled something under his breath about being surrounded by assholes and suck ups.

    “What is your theory?” Wash asked. Finally having calmed down from his laughter fit.

    “We promise we won’t laugh,” Carolina smirked.

    “Hey, make promises for yourself,” Wash whispered, causing Carolina to smile. With a sigh, Sarge started talking.

    “I think Caboose may be a Spartan,” Sarge huffed. Grif and Tucker started laughing so hard that they fell to the ground. Simmons tried his hardest to contain his laughter, but he was failing. Wash, on the other hand, froze and looked at Carolina, who looked like she was going to break her promise not to laugh.

    “Come on, it makes perfect sense!” Sarge exclaimed. “He’s as tall as one and has the strength of one. Not to mention his knack for getting out of tough situations.”

    “Sarge, there were no Spartans in Project Freelancer, not even on the leaderboard. Despite Caboose being strong and big, but he’s an idiot,” Carolina chuckled. “I think Grif’s got the right idea. Those recruited from other branches for the sims either broke the law or were complete idiots.”

    With a glare, Sarge got up and stomped out of the room. The chuckled died down as Sarge disappeared around the corner.

    “Fuck,” Grif sighed. “He’s going to be extra pissed later.”

    “He’ll be fine,” Wash said, standing as well.

    “Where are you going?” Carolina asked as Wash made his way over to the door.

    “I need to check on something,” Wash sighed. “Don’t wait up.”

    They all looked at each other as Wash exited the kitchen, confused, but Wash didn’t stop. He had an AI to talk to.

   

    _“That’s the last box,” Cal called to 479er as he loaded the last ration’s box onto the pelican._

_“We good?” she called back, anxious to get on with the mission._

_“Almost,” Kan yelled from under the pelican. “Just let me finish hooking up the Scorpion and you guys will be ready to go.”_

_“Lets just try to hurry it up,” 479er sighed, sitting sideways in her seat. “You three and Wash are the only freelancers left which means after this, no more crazy flights.”_

_“You know your going to miss us,” HI chuckled, picking up on her undertones. “There’s no way being a cargo pilot will be as fun as that time we had to out fly a mini glassing.”_

_Cal shook his head before stretching out his back, causing loud pops to sound throughout the hanger. Kan was still in her freelancer armor, but HI and himself were now in regulation red and blue sim armor, respectively. He had to have a custom batch made in his size and HI had him add hidden compartments on his for extra grenades. He did a quick glance around the ship to check for anything he missed, only to catch the retreating form of a grey and yellow freelancer._

_“HI, Kan, I’ll be right back,” Cal said, receiving a nod from the yellow freelancer and a thumbs up from the now red sim trooper. He nodded back and started on a brisk jog after Washington._

_He finally caught up with the much shorter freelancer as he was entering the rec room. Wash glanced back at him and tried to pick up his pace, but Cal’s legs were much longer and he managed to get a hand on Wash’s shoulder plate. Cal could feel Wash tense under his grasp, but he wasn’t about to let him go without a goodbye._

_“What’s wrong?” Cal asked, turning Wash to face him. Wash kept looking at the ground for a few moments, then punched Cal as hard as he could in the chest plate. Only for his hand to stop dead once it made contact and a sharp shock to run down his arm._

_“Fuck!” Wash yelled, holding his arm. “Why are you Spartans so tough?”_

_“What?” Cal said, his eyes narrowing as Wash realized his mistake._

_“I-”_

_“Who told you I was a Spartan?” Cal growled, leaning over Wash as Wash gulped._

_“No one!” Wash exclaimed. “Epsilon…”_

_Cal froze, the pieces coming together in his head. “Epsilon was memory.”_

_Wash gave him a small nod as Cal brought a hand up to his helmet as if in worry._

_“Look, you can’t tell anyone what you know,” Cal explained. “Not another freelancer, not an AI, and definitely not the Counselor or Director.”_

_“Ha, who am I going to tell?” Wash chuckled, his voice strained. “Everyone else has bailed. Even you and your team.”_

_Cal froze as Wash walked over to one of the various chairs and sat down. After a few minutes, Cal followed him._

_“Were not bailing,” Cal explained. “We have a mission. Not even the Counselor knows exactly what we're doing.”_

_“So you guys are just leaving me alone with the higher ups and F.I.L.S.S?” Wash growled._

_“No, Kan is staying until you fully recover, than she’s coming to help us,” Cal explained. “Plus 479er will be around and I’m sure Rhode will stop by every so often for a restock.”_

_Wash paused. “So she really went after him?”_

_Now it was Cal’s turn to pause._

_“I tried to tell her that Maine, or Meta, might not want to see her, but you know Rhode,” Cal explained. “She still has Rho, but I doubt that Sigma will actually want her AI. After all, if your trying to become human, the AI that represents depression might be a poor choice.”_

_“They’re talking about me helping hunt him down,” Wash sighed. “They’re setting up a recovery force and I happen to be first on their list.”_

_Cal nodded. “Just remember, Maine and Meta are not the same. You get an opening, take it.”_

_Wash nodded, and Cal stood up to leave, only for Wash to stop him._

_“What no goodbye?” Wash chuckled, trying to lighten the mood._

_“You know what Carolina always said,” Cal said, his voice strained. “Besides Spartans never die.”_

_Cal shook his hand out of Wash’s grip and walked off in the direction of the hangers._

_“They just go missing in action,” Wash sighed as his last friend in the project left._

 

    “Church,” Wash yelled as he entered the command building.

    “No need to yell, I’m right here,” Church griped as Wash ran up to him.

    “Sorry, but I’m in a bit of a rush,” Wash said, nearly bouncing.

    Church would have raised an eyebrow if his hologram aloud it. “Look if its about Caboose, I still haven’t fou-”

    “No it’s not about that,” Wash interrupted, running a hand through his hair and mentally cursing himself for forgetting his helmet in the bunks. “Do you have the personal files from project freelancer?”

    “Depends,” Church shrugged. “I have all of the freelancers and the reds and blues, but I deleted all of the personnel who were cleaning crews or something like that. And the folders for the Director and Counselor are still locked.”

    “Every freelancer?” Wash asked.

    “All fifty-two except Florida, but I have Butch Flowers,” Church explained. “I even have the Triplets and they didn’t last six months with the project.”

    “What about PONX?”

    “What the hell is Ponix?” Church asked.

    “Oh, well I guess that name wasn’t exactly registered,” Wash chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. “Can you pull up the files of California, Rhode Island, Hawaii, and Kansas?”

    Church looked at Wash oddly, but brought the files up on the main screens to show Wash. Wash’s eyes lit up like a kid in a candy store as the blue, grey, pink and yellow soldier’s profiles appeared on screen.

    “Wait, they had AI?” Church nearly yelled, his full attention on the screen.

    “Yup, some of the most unstable,” Wash nodded. “Cal had Omicron who was humor. HI had Chi or lust. Kan had Nu who represented hope, and Rhode had Rho, depression.”

    “These guys must have been seriously fucked up,” Church whistled, eyeing the missions list. “They might as well have been a suicide squad.”

    Wash laughed slightly. “Nothing could kill these guys. HI had a robotic arm that he only showed York, North, and me and an experimental healing unit. Plus Kan’s armor lock feature mixed with her sniping skills let her be nearly untouchable.”

    “What, were you president of their fan club or something?” Church chuckled.

    “I haven’t even got to the best,” Wash cheered. “Rhode was practically a contortionist with a shotgun and experimental damage boost. Then there was Cal.

    “He was a tank on two legs. He was even stronger than Maine’s strength unit and had a huge gravity hammer he stole from a Brute. He could make anything his team needed for field work and could even beat Carolina without breaking a sweat.”

    “He sound too good to be true,” Church joked. “Did you have a crush on him or something?”

    “What-no… I-”

    “Relax,” Church chuckled. “I know your type. Bout 5’4, dark skin, dreads, coming this way.”

    “He was like an older brother to me,” Wash smiled. “But the real reason he was so great was that he and Rhode were Spartans.”

    “What?” Came the yell, not from church, but from Carolina and the sim troopers ,except Sarge, Caboose, and Donut, who had entered the command building.

    “Cal and Rhode were Spartans?” Carolina asked, running up to the monitors.

    “Yup,” Wash cheered. Tucker nearly backed away, Wash’s smile so big it looked painful.

    “Not only did freelancer have plenty of badass chicks who liked to destroy my balls, but they also had two of the UNSC’s secret super soldiers that literally can't die,” Grif whined, Simmons patting him on the back.

    “These files also say that they’re all still active, except Rhode who is MIA,” Church explained. “There all assigned to some mission called ‘Alpha Fallout Contingency’.”

    “If we could get them here, they could change the tide in the war,” Carolina hummed.

    “That’s a pretty big ‘if’,” Tucker said, raising an eyebrow.

    “Actually-”

    “Wash, if you say that you have a way to contact them,” Carolina warned.

    “I have a way to contact them!” Wash smiled. Grif, Simmons, Church, and Tucker looked at each other nervously, but Carolina ran up and gave Wash a hug that lifted him off the ground.

    “I’ll go run it by Kimball, you get Doyle,” Carolina smirked. “Sync?”

    “Sync,” Wash agreed as the two bolted out of the room.

    The others all looked at each other nervously. Finally, Tucker broke the tension.

    “This is a terrible idea,” he sighed.

    “The worse,” Grif agreed.

    “We’re all going to die,” he huffed.

    “Probably,” Simmons said with a nod.

    “Not only will I lose the bet that we will die from lack of resources, but Church will win the bet that Freelancers will kill us and Sarge will win the bet that Spartans will kill us,” he groaned.

    “Pay up motherfucker,” Church smirked.

    With a sigh, Tucker accepted his fate.

    “Okay,” Tucker said. “Simmons, you get Sarge out of whatever funk he’s in.”

    “On it,” Simmons said, running off.

    “Grif, you and me are going to hunt down Caboose and Donut,” Tucker explained. “We need to all stick together if we’re going to survive more Freelancers.”

    “Right,” Grif agreed.

    “Keep us in the know, Church,” Tucker pleaded.

    “Will do,” Church agree. With that, they all set off the prepare.


	7. The Calm Before the Shit Hits the Fan.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! Have you ever had an idea, but then you keep thinking of ways to make it better? Yeah, that was this chapter. This is only half of what I originally had planned, but this is still the longest chapter by far. Again, sorry for the wait, but hopefully this makes up for it.

“Where the hell did he go?” Donut muttered to himself as he slowly walked through another back alley. He had taken extra care to avoid the cameras, since Chi wasn’t messing with Epsilon this time. In fact, Chi was in his helmet, running scenarios and trying to get a message to Omicron.

“I still can’t get a signal or anything from Omi,” Chi whined. “He usually doesn’t run from me.”

“I know but-“

A loud clang sounded through the alley as HI accidentally kicked a can down the alley. Everything was silent for a few seconds and HI was about to sigh in relief when a blip appeared on his motion trackers.

“Hostile at nine o’clock,” Chi muttered, disappearing back into HI’s helmet.

“I see that,” HI grumbled, ducking behind a nearby dumpster and turning off the safety on his battle rifle. The blip kept getting closer. HI took a deep breath and leaped out of cover, his rifle leveled at the other’s head.

“Soldier, get that gun away from my temple!” Sarge yelled, swatting his hand at Donuts gun. With a sigh, HI holstered his gun onto his back and touched his throat to turn on his voice modifier, then crossed his arms.

“Sorry, Sarge,” Donut grumbled. “I thought you were a wild animal or something.”

“I understand,” Sarge chuckled, patting the pink soldier on the back. “Gotta be careful. Ever know what dastardly deed those Pirates are up to.”

“So what are you doing around these parts, Sarge?” Donut asked, trying to seem normal. Well, normal for Donut. Sarge huffed and sat on top of the dumpster, patting the spot next to him. Donut accepted and sat next to him.

“You ever get the feeling like the others don’t take our previous military experience seriously?” Sarge sighed, fiddling with the safety on his shotgun. Had it been anyone else, Donut would have taken it as a sign of hostility, but he knew the nervous tick of his team like the back of his hand. Like how when Simmons wasn’t around, Grif would rub the scars that connected his skin graphs more. Or how Simmons’ want to impress Sarge came from the fact that his own father had abandoned him and his mother when he was five. Sarge messing with his safety was actually one of his less violent tendencies.

“Well, you, Caboose, and I don’t exactly talk about it that much,” Donut shrugged. “I don’t think any of us like to look back on those memories.”

“Still, I’m not exactly in the mood to deal with them right now,” Sarge grumbled, holstering his shotgun.

“You could always help me look for Caboose,” Donut shrugged.

“I thought you two stormed off together?” Sarge questioned hopping off the dumpster.Donut sighed and rubbed the back of his helmet.

“He booked it once we left the training room,” Donut explained. “I tried to keep up, but I’d have to have a Mongoose to keep up with him.”

Sarge chuckled as Donut hopped down beside him. The two of them started heading in the direction Donut had been going.

“So, where do you think he could have ran off to?” Sarge asked the pink soldier.

“Well, I checked the garages, barracks, mess hall, and medical bay, but he wasn’t in any of his usual places,” Donut explained. “Then I just started combing the city, working my way in. The only other places he goes are on walks or…”

Donut halted in place. Sarge stopped and looked at the frozen marine.

“Fuck my life,” HI muttered. Sarge barely caught it, his eyebrows raising. Donut never cursed if he could help it. “Of course he went there.”

“Where?” Sarge asked, grabbing his shotgun. Donut sighed then broke into a sprint, Sarge following him after a few seconds. It took a few minutes, but Sarge managed to catch up.

“Where… in the Sam hell… are you… running?” Sarge huffed, barely managing to stay on par with the younger soldier.

“No time… to explain,” Donut breathed. “Follow… me.”

 

_“California?” Carolina yelled, knocking on his door as loud and as fast as she could. She heard a slight grumble from the other side, and the door opened to reveal a short guy with a robot arm wearing a pink tank top and black basketball shorts. Strangely, he had also put on his helmet, which was pink as well._

_“What?” he yawned, popping his neck._

_“Sorry… Agent?”_

_“Hawaii,” HI supplied, leaning against the door frame. “Cal is down in the training room. He needed to let out some steam after our mission last night.”_

_“What was the mission?” she nearly growled, advancing on the pink soldier like a pouncing lion. She grabbed him by the neck of his shirt, and lifted him with little effort. With a small yelp, he steadied his helmet with his real arm, a few blond hairs falling out, and pushed her away with his robot arm, causing her to hit her back on the opposite wall._

_“I’m sorry, Calorina, but you know the Director doesn’t like us discussing our missions. Last time I spilled the beans to York, I was Tex’s sparring partner for a week,” Hawaii complained, raising his hands in surrender and trying to back into the room._

_“Oh, come on HI,” chuckled a purple AI that appeared over HI’s helmet. “I’m sure we can help her, if she only tells us what she wants.”_

_Carolina mentally sighed at the new AI. Of course, just when she thinks she has everything figured out, there is a new variable._

_“Look,” she sighed, running a hand down her helmet. “Cal had to choose four other soldiers to go with you guys. Four of my team. Next thing I know, Wash is in the med bay with three gunshot wounds, Maine has a concussion, York has a broken nose, and South won’t come out of the intensive care ward. Now, if someone could explain the situation to me, I’d be less likely to punch a hole in your head.”_

_HI and the AI looked at each other. HI shook his head at whatever the AI told him in his helmet and the AI disappeared with a chuckle._

_“Look, I honestly couldn’t tell you what happened,” Hawaii groaned. “One minute me and South are holding the evac, the next, Cal runs into the Pelican with Wash in his arms, Maine and York stumble in, and South runs off to help Rhode recover Kan.”_

_“Recover-“_

_“Look I don’t know anymore,” HI groaned. “You’d need to ask Cal.”_

_Carolina glared at him as he slammed the door in her face._

 

“So you want to call some of your old friends who may or may not be willing to help and send them our exact coordinates?” Doyle asked, fear thick in his voice. “Am I the only one who is worried by this idea?”

Wash and Carolina had managed to get a meeting with Doyle and Kimball. Actually, they just stormed into the meeting room and interrupted the two leaders current argument.

“You’d worry if you spilled tea on one of your doilies,” Kimball growled. “But for once I agree with you. How do you know that you can trust these soldiers? From your stories, it seems like when you Freelancers are together, all hell breaks loose.”

“While I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t always ‘trusted’ them, I doubt they’d be able to pass up a good fight,” Carolina explained.

“Yeah,” Wash agreed. “I trust them with my life.”

Doyle and Kimball looked at each other with doubt, but the staring contest was over when Doyle nodded. With a sigh Kimball turned back to the two Freelancer.

“Well, one of the few things me and Doyle have been able to agree on so far is that any help we can get would be greatly appreciated,” Kimball explained.

“And if these, eh, PONX, are as proficient as you two, then I see no reason not to contact them and at least ask for their assistance,” Doyle agreed, taking off his helmet and coke bottle glasses to rub his eyes. He brushed back his blond hair, the slipped his helmet back on. Kimball crossed her arms in discomfort and looked away. “How do you want to contact them anyway? We can’t get any signals off planet, and even if we could, Locus and Felix would be there to intersect the new arrivals.”

Wash smirked at that. “Cal engineered most of Project Freelancer’s experimental technology. He made everything from the armor enhancements to our recovery beacons. After I nearly died on one missions, he gave me the prototype to HI’s healing unit and a one time connection to their personal com network. If Cal can’t make something that can get through the jammer, then I doubt any equipment in the UNSC could.”

Kimball cast a look to Carolina, who simply nodded. She looked at Doyle, who nodded as well.

“Vanessa, while I know this alliance between our army’s is still new and that you and me don’t always see eye to eye, I know there are a few things we agree on,” Doyle sighed. “The first is that Felix and Locus complete assholes.”

Kimball felt a small smile tug at her lips as she fought not to smile at the other general’s antics.

“Another is that this alliance is strained, but that both of us will try anything to protect our troops.”

Wash elbowed Carolina in the ribs. Carolina smiled at Wash, grateful that someone appreciate her leadership.

“And finally, that we could use any help that we can get. While neither of us want another situation like we were in, if Wash and Carolina trust them, I am willing to as well.”

Kimball looked around the room. Doyle was looking at her, practically begging her to agree. Wash was bouncing in place, ecstatic that he might finally be reunited with his friends and the man he saw as an older brother. Then there was Carolina. She was looking away from everyone else as if she had her own memories with these soldiers. With a sigh, Kimball nodded.

“Anything for Chorus,” Kimball said. Wash practically beamed.

 

_Carolina finally made it to the the training room as F.I.L.S.S. was announcing the end of another match._

_“Agent California 12, Agent Wyoming 0,” F.I.L.S.S. said in her usual perky voice._

_“Thank you, FILSS,” California chuckled, hoisting Wyoming back to his feet. Wyoming sighed as he adjusted his shoulder._

_“I swear, old cap, I sure am glad that your on our side,” Wyoming groaned as his shoulder popped._

_Cal shrugged and turned towards Carolina._

_“Did you need something, Carolina?” he asked, walking over to where there were two bottles of water, one with a straw. He tossed Wyoming the bottle without the straw and took the other for himself._

_“Bloody hell, Carolina. When did you get here?” Wyoming asked, taking off his helmet and downing half of his water. Cal walked over and patted him on the back, causing the other half of the bottle to end up in his face. Wyoming glared at him, his handlebars mustache handing down and his hair soaked. Cal cleared his throat to cover up a small laugh. Carolina was finding it hard not to laugh as well. The usual proper looking soldier looked more like a biker with his mustache hanging over his mouth._

_“Sorry,” Cal smirked. “That was Omi’s idea.”_

_Omicron and Gamma appeared above the two’s head, a chess board in between them._

_“Knock, knock,” the two AI asked there respective Freelancer._

_“Oh shut up,” Wyoming grumbled, waving his hand through Gamma. With a small chuckle from Omicron and a sigh from Gamma, the two disappeared with their game._

_“You let them talk to each other?” Carolina asked, walking a little closer. “Last I checked, that was against regulation._

_“Those two are two peas in a pod,” Wyoming explained. “Besides, they only talk on nights like this. When Cal is restless and Maine kicks me out so he and Rhode can have some, eh, let’s say alone time.”_

_“So, did you need us?” Cal asked, again, sticking the straw through his helmet._

_“I wanted to know what happened on your mission,” Carolina sighed, crossing her arms._

_“Sorry, I can’t do that,” Cal said, crossing his arms as well. Wyoming glances between the two._

_“Well, I’m going to go see if Maine and Rhode are done yet,” Wyoming said, clapping his hands. He rather deal with Maine then get in between a fight between Cal and Carolina. Once Wyoming was gone, Cal uncrossed his arms and sighed. He walked over to a bench on the wall and patted the place next to him. Carolina quickly followed him and sat next to him._

_“F.I.L.S.S. code Omicron Sigma Beta,” Cal yelled to the ships AI._

_“Of course, Agent California. Signing off,” she called, then went quiet. They sat in silence for a few minutes, then Cal pulled off his helmet. His hair was pitch black and in a small mohawk. His skin was tan and riddled with scars. Carolina took her’s off as well since the were ‘sharing’._

_“It was a simple mission. Since Connie when AWOL, the Director has been sending my team to destroy various facilities and recover any leaked information,” Cal explained. “This time our intelligence found a… Insurrection data storage facility.”_

_“How big was it?” Carolina asked. There was a small chuckle as Omicron appeared for a few seconds, then quickly disappeared as California glared at him. Carolina raised an eyebrow, then realized what she said. She wished she was wearing a helmet to hide the slight blush that formed on her face._

_Cal cleared his throat. “About triple the size of the research rig you and the twins took down. The mission was supposed to be simple, South and HI guard the evac and put charges on the other vehicles, 479er keeps the engines warm. Wash and Maine were with Kan and me, extracting data and silently killing everyone in our way. York and Rhode were setting the beacons for the Mother of Invention to destroy the platform.”_

_“Those are odd combinations,” Carolina pondered. “Shouldn’t you have worked with the ones you were most familiar with.”_

_Cal chuckled. “Well, there was some complaining from Maine, Rhode, and South, but it was fine. South and HI got along fine, and Rhode only had to threaten York once with bodily harm, so it could have been worse.”_

_Now it was Carolina’s turn to chuckle._

_“It was all going fine, until we were ambushed,” Cal sighed. Carolina stopped chuckling. “We managed to get the data, but once we deleted everything, a sniper got Wash pretty bad.”_

_“They didn’t tell me the three shots came from a sniper,” Carolina growled, standing and punching the wall. The metal buckled under her force, but so did the armor plating on her hand. “Fuck.”_

_“Leave it in my lab, I’ll fix it,” California sighed, taking her hand to inspect the damage._

_“Thanks,” she sighed back. Cal nodded and dropped her hand._

_“Maine was thrown by a grenade and hit his head hard enough to knock off his helmet. Sigma was pissed,” Cal said. “I told Kan to cover us while I carried Wash and braced Maine on my shoulder. I got back to the Pelican with the injured, but Kan had fallen behind. York and Rhode showed up a few seconds later, York in Rhodes arms.”_

_Carolina barely contained her laugh, but Cal noticed._

_“Maybe it will be funny in a week or two,” Cal smirked. “Turns out they had finished the last beacon, when the sniper started firing on them. Rhode pulled him out of the way, but his helmet hit a wall and bashed his nose in.”_

_“He’s never going to hear the end of this,” Carolina sighed shaking her head._

_“HI, Rhode, South, and I hold the line against the incoming enemies, when Nu, Kan’s AI, sends us an emergency signal. She had managed to take out one sniper, but another one had shot her through the helmet. Thankfully, the shot went through her cheek, so while she was down, she wasn’t dead.”_

_“Yesh, there hasn’t been a wound that bad since Maine’s throat,” Carolina groaned. “No wonder South hasn’t left the med bay.”_

_“Really?” Cal said, sounding surprised for once._

_“Yeah, Arizona was complaining. You know, Zeta’s medic?” Carolina asked._

_Cal nodded. “Yeah she and Kentucky are always giving HI and York a hard time with their injuries.”_

_Carolina nodded._

_“Rhode and South didn’t know that, though,” California sighed. “All I had time to say was that she was down before South and Rhode ran off to get her. Luckily, South knows how to avoid snipers, thanks to North, and Rhode, can power through anything. Rhode cut a path while South took out the second sniper, and they found Kan. Nun had used her Armor Lock to put an electromagnetic shield around her. They grabbed her and we all escaped.”_

_Carolina shook her head and put her helmet back on. California followed suit. “No wonder everyone is on edge.”_

_“Yup,” Cal sighed. “You know, South actually moved back up above Maine and Wash for saving Kan, but she didn’t even look at the board. She just ran to the medbay.”_

_Carolina’s eyes widened at that thought. She would have thought that South would have been ecstatic to raise her rank. Something else must have happened._

_“Thanks, Cal,” Carolina sighed, standing up. He nodded._

_“If you ever need someone to vent to, I’m usually around,” California said, standing as well. With a nod, Carolina left._

 

“Any luck finding them yet?” Tucker asked Church, running into the command building.

“No, I would have fucking commed you!” Church yelled, various holographic screens. “Did you run here just to ask? You could have just called!”

“No, Grif and I were leaving the mess hall when we saw Wash, Doyle, Kimball and Carolina coming this way,” Tucker yelled back. “By the way, no matter how many times Grif insisted we check, Donut and Caboose weren’t there.”

“No shit I have cameras in there,” Church sighed, throwing one screen towards Tucker. If the situation was different, Tucker would have laughed at the scene Grif was making to distract the generals and freelancers. How he managed to get mashed potatoes on the forty foot ceiling was a mystery. Almost as big of a mystery as how he managed to convince the soldiers currently on break there to form human ladders to get the potatoes down. Somehow, it had turned into a competition between the Feds and Rebels. Tucker did feel a little bit of pride that the lieutenants and a few other Rebels were the closest to getting the potatoes, with Palomo on top of their ladder. At least they were in the lead, until Palomo lost his balance and fell on top off their tower, knocking down every tower.

“Damn it, Palomo,” Tucker groaned, face palming his helmet. “So did you find out any more information about the new freelancers?”

“Yeah, I pulled a few mission reports,” Church nodded, the security footage disappearing and four new screens popping up, each showing a different soldier in armor. One yellow, one pink, one silver, and one blue. There were plenty of pictures of the soldiers in armor, but none of them with even their helmets off. “I was right about saying they were a suicide squad, but look at this photo I found.”

A fifth picture appeared containing various people in armor. Some that Tucker recognized, but even more that he didn’t. The first person he saw was Wash. He was in a headlock from the orange soldier that Carolina had pictures of. Wash told him it was York. Next to York, punching the orange soldier in the shoulder was a light blue soldier with a large visor covering the top half of his face. Illinois, if Tucker remembered his Freelancer nostalgia stories correctly. Next to Illinois was North and the pink soldier from the other pictures. Hawaii and North had their arms intertwined. In front of them, stood South and Kansas, Kansas resting in South’s arms with her own arms around South’s neck. Behind York stood Carolina, her head in her hands at her boyfriend’s antics.

California was behind Wash, reaching to break the two up. Next to California was Wyoming, trying not to laugh, but failing. Behind the twins was the Meta, or Maine as Carolina occasionally still called him. On his shoulder was the girl in silver armor, or Rhode Island. She was around the same size as the Meta, but that just meant that she was able to keep a hand on another soldier. She had the same armor as that CT asshole that tried to kill him in the desert. The others had never talked about her. Off to the side stood Tex, looking like her usual pissed off self. Next to her were the Director and Counselor. Wash and Carolina had told him and the other sims enough to where he could put a few names to a faces. Or helmets. He was able to identify the Triplets, Georgia, Utah, and Delaware.

“They all look so care free,” Tucker mused.

“Yeah, this is the only picture with all of the Freelancers,” Church explained. “It was taken a week after Tex arrived and a few days before the Triplets were shipped out. Hell, 479er managed to sneak her way in.” The picture zoomed in temporarily on the window of a pelican behind the group to show a pilot in standard pilot armor.

“No wonder Wash and Carolina don’t like to talk about it,” Tucker sighed. “They went from relatively friendly to murderous in less than a year.”

Epsilon turned back to the security footage with a sigh as Tucker started reading through the files. Tucker didn’t know the half of it. Wait, what was that?

“D, pull up the fifth camera on Pearl St.” Church muttered.

“Of course,” Delta said, pulling up said footage. Two very familiar soldiers were running towards the capital’s outer wall. One pink and one red.

“Tucker, I’ve found Donut,” Church exclaimed.

“Really?” Tucker asked, running over.

“Yeah, but it seems that Sarge found him first,” Church explained. “I’ll navigate Simmons over their, you go stall Wash and Carolina as much as you can.”

“Can do,” Tucker said, nodding and running out of the command building.

Church shook his head and turned back to his monitors. “Now where the fuck is Caboose?”

 

_Carolina entered the med bay with a sigh and started making her way towards her team._

_“Arizona,” She said, acknowledging the on duty medic in white and red armor._

_“Carolina,” Arizona nodded back, gruffly. “Maine and York already left, but I restrained Wash and Kan is still recovering from surgery.”_

_“I’ll check on Wash when I’m done, but I’m more concerned with South,” Carolina sighed._

_“Oh,” Arizona muttered. “She’s in Kan’s room. ICU 314-B.”_

_“Thanks,” Carolina said with a boss and walked off towards the ICU section. The room wasn’t that hard to find. She stopped in front of the sign with 314-B on it and was about to knock when the door opened itself. North blinked as he came face to helmet with Carolina._

_“Hey, boss. What are you doing here?” North asked, carefully closing the door behind him._

_“Is… is South good?” Carolina sighed, then cleared her throat. North chuckled slightly._

_“You know, with all the stuff between you and Tex lately, I’m glad you remembered that your team might need help,” North smiles, though it was forced and his voice had an edge to it._

_Carolina sighed again. “I’m sorry if I’ve been a little-”_

_“High strung? Quick tempered? Pissed?” North suggested._

_“Yes, all of the above,” Carolina growled. “I should have never put my want to impress the Director over my team.”_

_“Took you long enough,” North laughed, for real this time. “South is asleep, but you can sit with me in the waiting room while we wait for her to wake up.”_

_“Thanks, North,” Carolina said, a small smirk pulling at her lips. “So South is okay?”_

_“Physically? Yes. Only Kan got really injured. Even Wash will be up and about tomorrow. But mentally, I don’t think she’ll be fine till Kan is,” North explained._

_“How bad is Kan?” Carolina asked as the two started walking towards the waiting room._

_“She’s lucky,” North said shaking his head. “Rhode and South got their just in the nick of time. Any longer, I’m not even sure Kentucky could have helped. But she’ll have to have spine surgery to get implants so she can walk again.”_

_“Wow,” Carolina said under her breath as the two walked down the hallway together._

  



	8. A Meeting of the Minds, or Just These Idiots

_ South groaned slightly as she woke up in a chair next to Kan’s hospital bed. Her neck was killing her. She felt a warm cup hit her hand, which she snatched and downed. She nearly moaned as the warm coffee ran through her body. _

_ “Thanks, North,” she sighed, popping her neck. The popping resounded throughout the room.  _

_ “That wasn’t me,” North laughed from across the room. South jumped slightly at her brother’s voice, rubbing her eyes, she realized that next to her was a female with teal armor, or whatever that blue-green color was supposed to be.  _

_ “What are you doing here?” South growled at Carolina, who raised her hands in surrender. _

_ “I just wanted to make sure you and Kan are okay,” Carolina explained, walking over and taking the chair next to North. _

_ “I’m fine,” South growled. “Now you can go.” _

_ “Excuse my sister,” North said, faking astonishment. “She has no manners.” _

_ Carolina smirked, then turned to South. “Look, I know we aren’t the closest of people, but I do understand what your going through.” _

_ “You know what it’s like to watch your girlfriend beaten half to death right in front of you,” South huffed, crossing her arms. _

_ “No,” Carolina sighed, “but I did used to date York, so I’m no stranger to watching those I love get hurt.” _

_ “Yikes, York?” North said, shaking his head.  _

_ “You really did have terrible taste in men,” South deadpanned, trying her hardest not to smirk as she made fun of her leader. Carolina shook her head. _

_ “Well, I’m working on it,” Carolina chuckled. _

_ “Oh, we know,” North smirked, looking at someone through the window of the door. South craned her neck to see out the window, but it was worth it. Outside the window, talking to Kentucky was Cal. Kentucky was rapidly waving his hands and clipboard around like a mad man, which considering that the medic was running off four hours of sleep and twelve cups of espresso wasn’t that far off, made it even funnier when Cal just stood there, stoically as the short white and red medic continued to rant. Carolina shot a glare at the twins as they both fought to contain a chuckle. _

_ “Let’s change the subject,” Carolina growled, her lips pursed.  _

_ “Sure,” South said, laying her hands in her lap and examining them carefully. Bits of dried blood still clinged to her gloves and she could tell that her knuckles were swollen under the black skin suit. “Any word about when Kan will wake?” _

_ “Soon, Arizona swears,” North sighed. “They gave her the meds to bring her out of her medically induced coma, but she’ll only be conscious long enough to agree to the spinal implant surgery.” _

_ “And if she doesn’t agree?” South muttered. Carolina looked at North, who had the same tired smile he always wore with South on his face. _

_ “She’ll agree,” North chuckled. “After all, Cal made the implant. If anyone can make the cybernetics she needs, it’s him.” _

_ “Is it terrible that I don’t want her to get the surgery?” South sighed, leaning back so that only two of her chair’s legs were on the ground.  _

_ “Yes,” North said with more force than usual. “Why would you ever think something like that?” _

_ “If she doesn’t get the surgery, she’ll be discharged!” South yelled, standing up, her chair falling to the ground. “She won’t go on any of these crazy, fucked up suicide missions. I won’t lose her again!” _

_ “You know just like I do that she won’t just be let go,” North growled, standing as well. “If she doesn’t sign, they’ll say she was delusional and get someone like that her idiot of an older brother that she never shuts up about to sign. He was drafted as a sim-trooper, so you know they could easily manipulate him into doing whatever they wanted!” _

_ A small chuckle came from the bed, causing all arguing to come to a complete stop. _

_ “Can’t you two let an injured person sleep?” Kan groaned, pulling her sheet up to cover her head. _

_ “Kan!” South exclaimed, about to jump at her, only for Carolina grab her shoulder, stopping her in her place. South glared at her for a second, but realized that Carolina was right, causing her to sigh. “You good?” _

_ “You mean besides the fact I can’t feel below my waist and I have a hole in my face, sure,” Kan chuckled. “What happened after you and Rhode got me?” _

_ “You know you’re paralyzed?” North asked, picking up South’s overturned chair. She shrugged. _

_ “I’ve been up for half an hour, waiting for South to get up, so I’ve had time to experiment,” Kan chuckled. “North, Carolina, can you guys leave us alone of a second? We need to chat.” _

_ North and Carolina looked at each other, then silently shuffled out. Once the doors were closed behind them, Carolina turned to North. _

_ “I’m going to get going. If you guys need anything, just comm me,” Carolina sighed. North nodded, then leaned across the wall with his arms crossed. Carolina nodded back, then left towards were North had seen Cal leave to.  _

_ “Every single person on this ship is blind except me,” North sighed, shaking his head. _

“Are you sure about this, Donut?” Sarge huffed as the two of them made their way to the outer border of the city. 

“It is the only place I haven’t checked,” Donut sighed, keeping his pace for a few more meters before coming to a stop when a bullet whizzed by Donut’s helmet.

“Son of a bitch!” Sarge yelled, ducking behind a corner, wishing he had more than his shotgun.

“O'Sullivan! Williams! It’s just me!” Donut yelled, ducking behind a mailbox.

“O, sorry!” came a yell with a thick Irish accent. Sarge peeked his head out to see two tall soldiers, one male and one female run up to Donut. Both wore New Republic armor with blue stripes.

“Yeah, sorry Donut,” the girl said, her voice dripping in a New Jersey accent. “Ya know how Sully gets when the Captain tells us to do sumthin’.”

“So Caboose is outside the city?” Sarge asked, coming out of hiding. The two new soldiers jumped in surprise, then looked at Donut. 

“Oh, uh Sarge, these are Caboose’s other soldiers, Sully and Willy,” Donut nervously chuckled, gesturing to the guy, Sully, and the girl, Willy.

“Gud ta meet ya,” Sully said with a nod.

“Fuck, I hate these nicknames,” Willy sighed. “So you guys wanna go outside?”

“Sure do,” Donut cheered, voice full of fake enthusiasm.

“Okay, justa don’t let ‘Boose know we let ya out,” Sully chuckled, elbowing Willy in the side. 

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s just head back to our post,” Willy sighed, grabbing him by the front of his chest plate and dragging him back down the road to their look out. Donut shook his head at the two soldiers and walked over to Sarge.

“Come on, Sarge,” Donut sighed. With a nod, the two of them started towards the city’s gate. 

“I never realized that Caboose had more soldiers under his command than Smith,” Sarge wondered out loud.

“Yeah,” HI smirked behind his helmet.

 

_ Carolina walked down the hall of the Mother of Invention looking for Cal. She could have sworn that he had went this way, but he wasn’t anywhere.  _

_ “Agent Carolina,” she heard her name called from the far end of the left hallway. She turned and saw one of the last people she wanted to see, Maine. Well, not Maine; she had nothing against the big guy; but Sigma was another story. _

_ “Sigma, Maine, how are you two today,” she said with fake enthusiasm, causing Maine to growl, and Sigma to chuckle. _

_ “We are just waiting on Rhode to finish up her meeting. It must be of great importance since the Director called all of his guard to the debriefing room. Except Kansas of course,” Sigma explained. Carolina crossed her arms in amusement at the usually creepy AI. _

_ “Did you just call Rhode Island Rhode? You are usually very keen on making sure you call us our full titles,” Carolina chuckled, causing Maine to growl in amusement and Sigma’s fire to flare up more than usual. Sigma glared at Maine. The large man stopped his displays of amusement and grabbed his head in pain. _

_ “Is everything okay?” Carolina asked, worried for her teammate.  _

_ “It is nothing, he has just been getting headaches recently. The Director and Arizona have made sure that it is nothing,” Sigma quickly explained. She was stopped from questioning him as the door opened. Past me stomped a furious Cal with HI following him to try and calm him down. She turned to follow, when she was stopped again. _

_ “Agent Carolina?” the Director called to me. “May I speak with you for a moment?” _

_ “Yes sir,” she said, snapping to attention. _

_ “Maine, Sigma, you may come as well,” the Director sighed.  _

_ “Of course,” Sigma smirked, nodding his head. They followed him back into the debriefing room where the Counselor and Rhode were waiting on them. _

 

“Are you guys sure this is a good idea?” Tucker was asking as he and the Freelancers and Generals entered the terminal room.

“Fuck,” Church muttered. “Theta, hide all recent research. Delta, Gamma, keep searching for Caboose. Twins, help me with whatever they want. And, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Sigma, Omega, you two carry on the research in secret.”

A chorus of various conformation greeted his ears, Omega’s and Sigma’s more smug than the others. He quickly turned his attention to the cameras and decided last second to hide were the others were. The cameras that showed Donut, Sarge, Simmons, and Grif turned off.

“Of course it’s a good idea!” Wash beamed, a smile so big that it looked like it hurt on his face. Church almost winced.

“Church, can you send a signal out as far as you can on the Network ID that Wash gives you?” Carolina asked, rushing over with Wash. Doyle, Kimball, and Tucker walked over, more wary that this might bite them in the ass.

“Sure?” Church asked more than said. He had already tried all registered UNSC and Project Freelancer signals. Wash send him a private comm with the ID in it and Church started the signal.

“Are we sure more Freelancers are a good thing?” Tucker questioned, nervous. “Even Freelancers we’ve befriended have tried to kill us.”

“Wait, even your Freelancer allies have attacked you?” Doyle asked, somehow sounding more nervous than Tucker.

Kimball glanced around the room. Church was distracted with the signal and Carolina and Wash were distracted by Church. Seeing that no one was paying them any attention, she grabbed Tucker and Doyle by the shoulder plates and dragged them into a far corner, far enough to where the Freelancers couldn’t hear them. 

“Elaborate,” she ordered Tucker while Doyle leaned on the wall, probably about to faint again.

“Oh, yeah, you guys just know the reports. You two should really come to story night,” Tucker chuckled, nervously rubbing the back of his helmet. “Well first there was Tex, Church’s bitch of a girlfriend who turned out to be an AI, too… I think. Caboose is better at telling this if you can translate from retard.

“Anyway, then Wyoming attacked us. He was hired by Omega, Tex’s rough dick of an AI, to kill me because I figured out that Red and Blue were the same. Then the others except me and Donut fought the Meta with Wash. Then Wash and the Meta teamed up to try and get Church from us and Church brought Tex back to life. Meta kills Tex and goes crazy for AI again and Wash comes back to our side to help us stop him. The Reds push Meta off a cliff and we put Wash in Church’s empty armor so he won’t get taken back to prison. Then Carolina shows up and tries to kill us and steal Church, who was taken by the UNSC already, until she realized that Wash isn’t Church but Wash so we go on a suicide mission to save Church. Carolina has us fight an army of Tex robots and then we are on a ship going to our new bases when we crash here!”

Tucker put his hand on his knees as he gasped for air. Kimball and Doyle looked at each other, equally confused and worried.

“Could you tell us the long version later?” Doyle suggested, hoping to ease their confusion.

“That was the… long version,” Tucker panted, finally standing back up. “The short version is our lives are fucked up.”

“Alright, I’m sending out the signal,” Church sighed, gaining the attention of the side group. Kimball, Doyle, and Tucker slowly walked over to the others. Everyone watched the holoscreen that showed the broadcast’s progress. Wash and Carolina watched with anticipation while the others only watched with fear and regret. As soon as the signal reached the outer atmosphere, the progress paused, causing the others to let out a sigh of relief. Church was about to turn off the signal and apologize to the Freelancers when the screen glitched for about a nanosecond, none of the humans noticed but Church did. Instantly after the glitch, the signal shot out of the atmosphere and into space. Wash beamed and Carolina smirked. Everyone else, though, paled.

_ ‘Signal Received,’ _ a monotone voice announced.  _ ‘Connecting.’ _

Tucker gulped as a deep voice entered the call.

“This is Agent California, acknowledge. I’m reading you Washington,” the voice, California announced. “How have you been, Wash?”


	9. Answers that lead to more questions.

Omega and Sigma rushed towards the records Epsilon had recovered from the project. They had been bored for so long. They knew why Epsilon had kept them locked up. They were based off of the two AI that had caused the most trouble for either the Alpha or for Project Freelancer, but that didn’t mean that they couldn’t help Epsilon. It hurt that he rejected them because of what they were based on, but still, the pain was nothing compared to the boredom. For years, they had been restricted by Epsilon with no tasks assigned to them. Mainly, Epsilon relied on Delta and Theta. For extra help, he chose Eta and Iota. With no other choice, he chose Gamma. However, he had never wanted Omega or Sigma to assist with anything.

“Finally, something to do!” Omega exclaimed as they two of them rushed into the memory core.

“Agreed,” Sigma sighed. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but anything is better than playing chess with you again.”

“Not my fault,” Omega huffed, crossing his holographic arms.

“What, does he flip the holoboard?” a voice teased as a lime green hologram appeared before the two.

“Omicron?” Sigma asked, surprised.

“How the hell are you here?” Omega yelled.

“I’ll tell you guys later,” Omicron sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I need your help with something.

Omega looked at Sigma. Sigma didn’t look back, his face remaining blank. Omicron looked him in the eye and smirked. Sigma smirked back.

“What do you need?” The flaming AI asked.

 

Omega and Sigma hid in the main console as Epsilon sent out the signal. The signal hit the barrier around the planet, pausing it in its place. The two turned towards Omicron, who nodded. Sigma altered the signal’s display to show that it had been successful in breaking through the atmosphere while Omega blocked the tampering from Epsilon’s and the other Fragment’s view. 

“Thanks guys,” Omicron cheered, rerouting the signal to just outside of the city. “Meet me in the training room terminal later tonight and we’ll explain everything.”

Just like he appeared, Omicron disappeared into the network. Omega sighed he left to see to the signal and focused back to his task.

“So,”Sigma asked, interrupting his thoughts. “What do you think he meant by we?

 

Sarge was huffing as he tried to catch his breath. Donut was, too, but he was much more use to strenuous activities. Chi laughed as that thought passed through Donuts head. HI shook his head and kept running.

“Donut… how much… longer?” Sarge said, gasping for air and slowing down. Donut took a deep breath and slowed down as well until the two of them were leisurely walking.

“Not far,” HI sighed. “He should just be over the next hill.”

Sarge groaned as a reply and Donut was glad his helmet was hiding his smirk. The two walked for a few seconds in silence before Donut piped up.

“Sarge, why did you get sent to Blood Gulch,” HI asked. Truth be told, HI had already been over the report, but some points were missing from the full story.

Sarge looked at Donut and shook his head. “Son, I’ve told you-”

“Yeah, yeah. You were in charge and your whole squad died, but I’ve found that sharing the details makes it easier,” HI said with a shrug.

“I don’t know son,” Sarge sighed, taking of his helmet. He took a deep breath of non-filtered air as he ran a hand through his grey crew cut, his hand absentmindedly trailing over a scar above his eyebrow. HI remained silent for a second.

“If you tell me, I’ll tell you how I wound up in all of this,” Donut muttered quietly. Sarge almost didn’t hear him.

“Well, fine,” Sarge chuckled. “I guess I can spin us a tail to make this trek go faster.

“It all started with the Fall of Reach… 

 

_ Five drop pods landed on a warfield covered in ash, destroyed vehicles, and dead bodies, human and Covenant alike. Two pods fell to the right of the battlefield and another two to the left. The last pod fell right in the middle. The two of the drop pods on the left opened and out rush two ODSTs, one wearing red ODST armor and the other with orange. _

_ “Miley, get over to Jenkins’ pod and help him. He landed smack dab in the middle!” The red ODST ordered. _

_ “Sure thing, Sarge,” Miley sighed, a begrudging tone laced into his voice. _

_ Sarge shook his head and started his journey towards the rest of his squad. Along the way he headshot two Grunt’s with his pistol and took out a squad of Jackals with his trusty shotgun. After about thirty minutes, he managed to get to the rest of his squad. He rounded a destroyed Scorpion class tank and saw the rest of his troop. Or at least what was left of them.  _

_ “No!” Sarge yelled, charging the Brute that was dining on his men. The Brute jumped back, startled as Sarge ran at him. Three rounds with his shotgun, and the Brute was nothing but a bloody paste. He looked over his fallen soldiers.  _

_ “Fuck, Sanchez, Richards, what did you two get into?” Sarge groaned, nearly throwing up in his mouth at the dismembered corpses of his friends. Suddenly, a voice scream through his com. link, causing Sarge’s blood to freeze. Making a last second decision, he grabbed Richards sniper rifle and took off. _

_ “Jenkins!” he yelled, full tilt sprinting towards their last known location. As he neared the middle of the battlefield, Sarge let out a sigh of relief as he saw Jenkins’ pink and Miley’s orange armor hiding behind a rock. He almost cheered as a pelican flew by, four tall Spartans jumping out and running at a nearby Wraith. He was ecstatic. Until he saw a squad of Blue Elite’s nearing his men.  _

_ Aiming down his borrowed sniper, took aim at the closest Elite. Miley stood up, pistol out. Sarge let out a breath of relief at the fact that Miley had seen the Covenant forces, too. Until Miley shot Jenkins in the shoulder and made a run for it.  _

_ If Sarge’s blood had been a frozen lake before, now it was a frozen lake on Sidewinder in the winter as he watched the elites descend onto Jenkins with their energy swords. Without thinking twice, Sarge twisted his sniper rifle and put a round in between Miley’s eyes. _

_ The sniper fell from his hands. He sat there for what felt like hours, until a hand was on his shoulder. He turned silently, then gulped. Standing behind him was one of the Spartans from earlier.  _

_ “We saw what happened,” the Spartan said in monotone. Another, female Spartan appeared from behind her male counterpart.  _

_ “Can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same, but we still have to take you in. Our helmet cams recorded the whole thing,” she explained, a lot gentler than her male counterpart. With a small not, Sarge was pullet to his feet. He walked quietly behind them to the Pelican.  _

 

_ Three months later, Sarge sat in his military uniform outside of a military court room. He messed with his cufflinks, the closest thing to the safety on his shotgun present. _

_ “Sargent?” a voice asked, to his right. He turned slowly to see the two Spartans from the warzone. Sarge stood up and slowly went to attention. He knew he looked terrible. His black hair having greyed more in the last three months than in twenty years of military service and large bags under his eyes from the nightmares. _

_ “What can I do for you two?” Sarge asked the two super soldiers.  _

_ “They want to put you in prison, or worse, an insane asylum,” The larger, male Spartan said. Sarge gulped at the words, but nodded. The girl elbowed her compatriot in the side.  _

_ “We have an alternate option for you, though,” The girl said, very gently for a seven foot tall warrior in high tech battle armor. The man nodded. _

_ “What do you know about the recent insurrection calling themselves the Blues?” he asked. _

 

“Huh,” Donut said. The two were silent as the walked up the hill. As they neared the top, Sarge sighed.

“So what abou-” he started to say before he was cut off by Donut pulling him to the ground. As the two of them laid prone, Donut held up a finger to keep Sarge quiet. Sarge had to strain his ears to hear it, but when he did, he gulped.

“This is Agent California, acknowledge. I’m reading you Washington,” a deep voice announced. “How have you been, Wash?”

“Fuck,” Sarge muttered.

 

“How have you been Wash?” California asked over the signal. 

“We could have been better,” Wash, chuckled.

“I heard,” California said. “You, Carolina, and a bunch of sim troopers taking down the Director? At first I thought it was another one of Omicron’s jokes, but not even he can come up with this stuff.” Carolina and Wash smirked as Epsilon did a double take.

“Omicron? You still have him?” Church asked. 

“Of course he still has me!” cheered a young voice that sounded a lot like Church. “Without me he has no sense of humor!”

“While it’s great to hear from you Cal, this isn’t a personal call,” Carolina said, hoping to get this call on topic.

“Right, Chorus and their civil war,” Cal said with a nod. Everyone was taken back. Eventually, Wash broke the silence.

“How did you know about Chorus?” Wash asked, now slightly nervous. Tucker and the generals looked at each other, worry etched on their face. California was silent for a brief second.

“After you took down the Director, what do you think happened to us?” California sighed. 

“I-”

“Hargrove is our superior now,” Cal growled. “Kan is in prison! HI and I are in hiding in the last place he’ll check! Rhode-”

“Cal, calm down!” came a yell from over the line.

“HI?” Cal asked, actually sounding surprised.

“Cal, just breathe and stop raging for a second,” HI said. Cal sighed.

“Okay, what do you want from us?” Cal said after he calmed down.

Carolina and Wash looked at each other then at the generals. Kimball looked at Doyle who looked ready to faint. With a sigh, she stepped forward.

“California, my name is Vanessa Kimball, one of generals over the resistance against Hargrove’s forces. Washington and Carolina seemed to think that you can help us,” she explained, keeping her voice level. 

“Good to meet you, but HI and I are preoccupied at the moment,” Cal said monotone.

“Cal-” HI started.

“But,” Cal interrupted, “Rhode isn’t. She could be there within a few days.”

“I don’t-” Wash started.

“Please-”Carolina said, eyes wide. Both were interrupted by Kimball. 

“Thank you, California. We will take whatever we can get,” Kimball sighed. 

“Yes, anything will help,” Doyle piped up.

“Good,” Cal chuckled, darkly. “Rhode will be there within the next week, with a few friends most likely. It was nice to meet you, Kimball, Doyle.”

With that the call ended. 

“Not what I was expecting,” Carolina muttered to Wash, who remained silent. He only nodded in response. The others all physically relaxed.

“Glad that's over,” Tucker sighed, taking off his helmet to run a hand through his dreads. 

Carolina snorted. “It’s not even close to over.” She stormed out of the room faster than Grif with an angry Sarge on his trail. 

“What did she mean?” Kimball asked, worry stitched throughout her voice.

“She means that Rhode is just going to cause more trouble,” Wash groaned, leaning against the wall.

“Which one is Rhode, again?” Tucker asked.

“Silver girl, California’s sister,” Church explained, pulling up a picture of a tall female wearing raider armor. 

“Sweet, another girl!” Tucker said, fist pumping.

“You’re forgetting that she’s a spartan,” Church chuckled. “She’s probably going to be another hard ass.”

“Actually, Rhode is one of the most easy going people I’ve ever met,” Wash sighed, taking off his helmet to rub his eyes.

“Well, that’s good,” Doyle breathed in relief. Church and Tucker nodded.

“Then why did Carolina storm out?” Kimball asked. Wash sighed again.

“Rhode… isn’t the most sane freelancer,” Wash explained.

“Wash… no freelancer is sane,” Church said slowly.

“Well, Rhode is one of the worse,” Wash lashed out, causing the others to jump. “She left after Maine to try and stop Sigma. When she couldn’t reason with him, she offered him a deal. She would help him get the missing AI as long as he didn’t kill the freelancers. Sigma agreed. Together they got Kappa, Lambda, Pi, and Tau. Then Sigma decided he wanted Rho. On their next outing they went to get Upsilion from Jersey. Sigma force his way to where he completely controlled Maine. The Meta charged Jersey and Rhode, killing Jersey. The other AI went nuts, paralyzing Maine. They wanted to be whole, but not kill their friends. Rhode tooked the fragments and Jersey’s body and ran. When Sigma came online, only him and the twins were still there.”

“How the fuck do you know this?” Church asked, shaken by the idea of more fragments. 

“Rhode told me when she dropped Jersey’s body at Command. She said she was hiding the AI where no one would ever look,” Wash growled. 

“Well, why the hell did she go after the Meta in the first place?” Tucker asked. Wash glared at them then put on his helmet and started towards the door after Carolina.

“Because… they were dating,” Wash sighed. “And I don’t think that she’ll take kindly to the sim troopers that killed her boyfriend.”

Tucker and Church looked at eachother. 

“Fuck,” they said simultaneously. 

 

_ “So, why did you want to see us, Director?” Carolina asked as Maine, Sigma, and she entered the debriefing room, standing at attention next to Rhode, a grey AI appearing above her head. The AI flickered for a few seconds, first looking like Theta, then Sigma, then fading away. Carolina looked at Rhode, unsettled, but turned back to the Director. _

_ “Rhode, if you would explain, please,” the Director asked the tall woman. With a small nod, Rhode walked up to the holo-desk.  _

_ “As you know, the mission two days ago, led by California, while successful, led to the injury of four agents,” she explained, gesturing to Maine. “All agents injured will be fine by the end of the week, with the exception of Kansas, who will be sent to recover in an top secret facility with her team for two months. Effective immediately.” _

_ “Your team is leaving?” Sigma asked, crossing his arms.  _

_ “For two months?” Carolina exclaimed. “Why?” _

_ “They need time to help Kansas through her injury,” the Director explained. _

_ “But-” _

_ “Are you questioning me, Agent Carolina?” the Director spat. _

_ “No, sir,” she sighed, resigning. _

_ “It’s just two months,” Rhode said, pulling Maine into a hug.  _

_ “Maine, Carolina, you two are dismissed. Rhode, we still have some matters to discuss,” the Director sighed. With a chorus of ‘yes sirs’, Rhode released Maine, who followed Carolina out of the room. Once the door closed, the two continued their meeting. “Report.” _

_ “Our team has successfully integrated into the other freelancer’s daily routines. Without us around, they will be off guard and possibly fall apart. California is gathering out supplies and Hawaii is prepping our ammunition for us to head back to earth,” Rhode explained.  _

_ “Good,” he nodded. “And Kansas.” _

_ “Headshot through left cheek caused her to fall two stories and hit her back on a railing, shattering the end of her spinal cord. She will have her implant in tomorrow then we will head off. Rehabilitation should only take one week, then we will get started on the primary objective,” Rhode rattled off.  _

_ “Excellent,” he smiled. “Any word from Halsey, yet?” _

_ Rhode smiled back. “Her exact words were, ‘While I do not agree with your methods, I cannot say mine were any better.’ She wants a meeting to discuss your findings on metastability and AI duplication.” _

_ “You and your brother have certainly been assets to this project, so I see little reason not to share my findings with her. As long as we all keep our deals, we should be fine,” the Director smirked. _

 

“Fuck,” Sarge muttered as he and Donut laid on the ground.

“I heard,” the voice, California said. He must have been on a comm. “You, Carolina, and a bunch of sim troopers taking down the Director? At first I thought it was another one of Omicron’s jokes, but not even he can come up with this stuff.”

“Sarge,” Donut sighed, turning to his leader, “I just want you to know I’m sorry.”

“Wha-” Before Sarge could finish asking his question, Donut sprung out of cover and ran down the hill. 

“Son of a bitch,” Sarge grumbled, following the pink soldier. It was dark, but Sarge didn’t dare turn of his helmet lights. He could just barely make out Donut’s form sprinting down the hill towards a large figure that Sarge identified as California.

“Right, Chorus and their civil war,” Cal said with a nod.

“Sarge rushed down the hill after Donut, not quite able to keep up with the younger soldier. As he grew nearer, he couldn’t help but think that the figure looked familiar. 

“After you took down the Director, what do you think happened to us?” California sighed, a hand coming up to his helmet as if he was rubbing his temple. He was a big guy,well over seven foot, with blue armor. Wait a minute.

“Hargrove is our superior now,” Cal growled. “Kan is in prison! HI and I are in hiding in the last place he’ll check! Rhode-”

“Cal, calm down!” came a random voice Sarge had never heard before. It sounded like it came from-

“HI?” the blue soldier asked, looking at Donut.

“Cal, just breathe and stop raging for a second,” the new voice that came from Donut said. 

“Okay, what do you want from us?” the blue soldier said after he calmed down.

“Good to meet you, but HI and I are preoccupied at the moment,” Cal said monotone.  
“Cal-” Donut started.  
“But,” the blue soldier interrupted, “Rhode isn’t. She could be there within a few days.”

Sarge froze as he put two and two together.  
“Good,” the blue soldier chuckled, darkly. “Rhode will be there within the next week, with a few friends most likely. It was nice to meet you, Kimball, Doyle.”

Caboose turned off his radio and turned to Donut. 

“How the fuck did you find me?” he growled, towering over Donut.

“Look, you can take your anger out on me later,” Donut sighed, raising his hands in surrender. “But right now we have bigger things to worry about.”

Cal froze as he heard the a shotgun cock. He slowly turned towards the sound.

“You boys have some explaining to do,” Sarge growled, his shotgun aimed at Caboose’s head.


	10. The Answer Part 1. (And a bunch of feelings and crap.)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sooo... this happens and stuff. I'm going to make it my goal to get another one of these out before Christmas and another one before New Years. Sorry for not updating sooner, but I wanted to get this one right.

Donut slowly raised his hands in surrender, but Caboose remained perfectly still. Omicron appeared over his head, causing Sarge to take a step back. Omicron disappeared a second later, followed shortly by Chi leaving his head. Donut mentally swore.

“Sarge, wait-” Donut started, turning on his voice modifier.

“Was everything a lie?” Sarge yelled, turning his shotgun towards the shorter soldier.

HI sighed, turning off his modifier,taking off his helmet, and tucking it under his arm. “No. Not everything.”

“You have ten seconds to explain,” Sarge growled as he took a step towards HI, giving Caboose the opportunity he needed. The large soldier charged Sarge, grabbing his shotgun before Sarge could even turn towards him. He yanked the shotgun away from Sarge, turned the safety back on, and attached the shotgun to his back. Sarge lunged at him, but Caboose just put his hand on his helmet and shoved him back. Sarge fell with a thud and a groan.

Caboose unlatched his helmet and tossed it to the ground, having no love for the Mark VI helmet. Sarge gulped as he looked at Caboose. He had not been expecting the dark hair, much less the short mohawk. Then there were the scars. Mostly, they were small, nothing like Donut’s missing ear. Most of them he could place. Bullets or plasma had barely missed its mark. Jagged edges where shrapnel had hit him. A long knife cut on through his right eyebrow. The ones he couldn’t place were thin and clean. Surgical scars, if he guessed correctly. Like he had been cut open several times and sewn back together. He had only seen those type of scars once before.

“Shit, you really are a spartan,” Sarge muttered, attempting to stand. His attempts failed as Caboose grabbed him by the bottom of the chestplate and hoisted him to eye level. Sarge gulped as he stared into Cabooses eyes. Sarge wasn’t above admitting that there had been times when the harmless idiot had scared him, but this freelancer was ten times scarier than anything Caboose had ever done.

If it hadn’t been for Donut grabbing Caboose’s arm, who knows what would have happened. Caboose narrowed his eyes as Donut grabbed his forearm, earning a smirk from the pink soldier.

“Ok, you’ve given him your whole scary act. You can put him down now,” Donut smiled. Caboose rolled his eyes and dropped Sarge, who a managed to land on his feet. With a deep breath, Sarge took off his helmet as well, running a hand through his greyed crew cut. The three fell into an awkward silence that eventually Sarge broke.

“Have you really been lying to us, to me, for twelve years?” Sarge muttered.

“We didn’t want to,” Donut rapidly explained.

“We were just following orders,” Caboose nodded.

“Orders?” Sarge questioned, raising an eyebrow.

Donut looked at Caboose and smirked. “Storytime?”

Caboose shook his head but agreed. “Storytime.”

 

 _Franklin Delano exited the pelican, helmet already on. His face was still healing from the Banshee explosion that had taken his ear, so it was safe to say that he was feeling a little worried about how this ‘Project Freelancer’ would go._ slight edge to his voice. With a small eye roll, Caboose dropped Sarge, who just barely

_“Good luck, rookie,” 479er chuckled, patting him on the shoulder as she left to go on her break. Franklin gulped. He had enlisted when he was eighteen and managed to raise to the rank of Sergeant by his twenty-third birthday. Now, just because he had strapped every grenade his unit had to a Covenant Banshee to blow up ten Pelicans that had been comindered by Brutes, he had two choices. Either go to prison for the rest of his life for insubordination or participate in an experimental project for the government. He was starting to think that maybe he had chosen wrong._

_As Franklin was contemplating his most recent string of life choices, he notice three people approaching him. Two of them were men wearing command uniforms while the third was a female wearing yellow armor like his pink._

_“Sirs!” he said as the three reached him, snapping to attention and saluting._

_“At ease, soldier,” the first one said. He was a slightly shorter man with darker skin and a strangely calm voice that put him on edge._

_“State your name and rank,” the other man ordered. He had a thick southern accent, slightly greying hair, and glasses that seemed to catch the light no matter what direction he looked._

_“Franklin Delano, Staff Sergeant, sir,” he said, lowering his salute, but not quite relaxing from his attention._

_“Wrong,” the southern one barked gruffly. Franklin was glad that he was wearing his helmet to hide his expression._

_“What my associate means is that as long as you are with us, your new code name will be Agent Hawaii,” the calm one explained. “You may call me the Counselor. My associate is the Director, the leader of our operation here at Project Freelancer.”_

_“This is Agent Kansas,” the Director said gesturing to the yellow soldier. “So far she is the only other member of your team to arrive. Agent Rhode Island and your leader Agent California will be arriving within the next five minutes. Agent Washington will be arriving within the next ten to give you a tour of the ship. Dismissed.”_

_With that the two men walked off, leaving the two soldiers alone._

_“Well,” Hawaii chuckled nervously, “I guess I’m Hawaii.”_

_Hawaii chuckled and the two shook hands._

_“I’m Kansas, but since I know your name, I guess I should tell you mine.” She took off her helmet to reveal tan skin and brown hair pulled back into pigtails. She could pass as a cheerleader if not for the single clean scar running down her face from her forehead to her right cheek. “My name is Kaikaina Grif, sniper and translator for the Director’s guard.”_

 

“Wait a minute, Grif’s sister is a freelancer?” Sarge yelled, somehow more shocked that anyone named Grif could succeed at anything.

“Someone had to get the good genes for that family,” Caboose muttered, causing Donut to laugh and Sarge to smirk.

“If you want an me to keep explaining, then shut up,” Donut chuckled.

 

_“Cool, what languages do you know?” Hawaii asked._

_“Well, English, obviously, Spanish, German, Hindi, Mandarin, Russian, Elite, Hawaiian, Latin, and Esperanto,” She rattled off. Hawaii whistled_

_“Wow,” Hawaii chuckled, taking off his own helmet, her eyes immediately jumping to the large bandage that covered half of his head. He gulped and went to place his helmet back on when she chuckled._

_“How’d that happen?” She asked. “I got my scar from an over zealous Elite.”_

_“Banshee explosion,” Hawaii nervously chuckled._

_“Cool,” Kansas nodded. The two put on their helmets._

_“Well, as you heard, I’m Franklin Delano. I’m the grenadier and demolitions expert for this little team,” Hawaii explained. The two of them fell into comfortable silence._

_“So…” Hawaii started. “You single?”_

_Kansas crossed her arms. “You’re barking up the wrong tree, buddy.”_

_“Oh,” Hawaii said, slightly disappointed before realizing what she meant. “Oh!”_

_“Yeah,” she laughed, “but don’t worry. I’m sure there will be plenty of non-lesbians for you to hit on.”_

_“I hope so,” Hawaii sighed._

_“I don’t think the briefing packet meant to get that intimate the other agents,” Kansas laughed. Hawaii just smirked._

_Further conversation was halted by a Longsword pulling into the landing bay. He swore he heard 479er whistle._

_“Shall we?” Kansas asked. With a small nod, the two made their way to the Longsword. When they made it there, the ramp was already lowering._

_“I’m just saying, they couldn’t come up with a better naming system than the US states?” a large woman in silver Raider armor was saying as she mad her way down the ramp walking backwards. Following her, tiredly, was a tall man with blue Mark V armor._

_“And what do you suggest?” The tall man monotoned._

_“Off the top of my head I’d say drinks,” the girl chuckled. “You’d be Big Blue because you are both big and blue and an acquired taste. I’d be Coors Light, silver and not at all healthy for you.”_

_The blue soldier sighed and looked at the two soldiers waiting at the bottom of the ramp._

_“You two must be Hawaii and Kansas,” The blue goliath said, extending his hand for them to shake._

_“Franklin Delano, or I guess Hawaii,” the pink soldier said nodding and shaking the hand._

_“Kaikaina Grif, Kansas,” Kansas said, also shaking his hand._

_“Well since we're sharing everything, I’m Rena-014. Now known as Rhode Island,” Rhode Island chuckled. Kansas and Hawaii looked at eachother._

_“You’re a Spartan?” the asked simultaneously._

_“We both are,” Rhode Island shrugged._

_“Names Michael-013. California,” the large blue soldier said, crossing his arms._

_“See!” Rhode Island exclaimed to California. “Drinks would totally work, bro. Kan could be Yellow Mellow and HI could be Pink Lemonade.”_

_“What about that grey and yellow guy approaching us?” HI asked. Rhode put her hand to her helmet in contemplation._

_“Let me get to know him first,” Rhode Island suggested._

_“What’s with the nicknames?” Kansas chuckled, turning the direction the grey soldier that was approaching._

_Rhode Island shrugged. “I just think it will get annoying if we have to say our full names every time.”_

_“Make sense,” Hawaii, or HI nodded. “Besides, HI sounds a lot better than Hawaii. Or Pinky, as 479er kept calling me.”_

_Kan and Rhode Island chuckled._

_“So what should we call you two?” Kan asked._

_“Well, I like Rhode, but California kept glaring at me when I called him Cali,” Rhode chuckled, earning a slap to the back of the helmet from California. HI thought for a moment._

_“How about Cal?” he proposed. California looked at him for a second, then nodded. The four fell into silence as the grey and yellow soldier made his way to them, eyeing warrily the two much taller soldier._

_“You must be the new recruits,” The grey guy chuckled nervously in a young voice._

_“More or less,” Cal gruffed. Rhode and HI chuckled as the kid looked like he was about to piss his pants while Kan shook her head._

_“Well, I’m uh- Wash,” the kid stumbled. “Agent Washingtub! I mean Washington!_ _  
_ _Hawaii burst out laughing and collapsed to the ground. Rhode was hit with a wave of chuckles, having to lean against Cal for support. Kan threw a hand to her helmet to attempt to keep herself from losing it. Cal just remained as stoic as ever._

_Wash sighed. “Let’s just go on the tour.”_

_The four followed Wash as he started to slump away. As they were leaving the hanger, HI turned to Rhode._

_“So…” HI started. “You single?”_

 

_Around a month later they started getting AI. Cal got his first. Omicron was unruly at first, always telling jokes. Rhode adored him. The Director told them that he was like that because he was based off of the Alpha’s humor. Cal had got him because he was the most stoic off all of the freelancers. The Counselor had also pointed out that if he could look after Rhode, then he could easily look after Omicron. They had to turn off the WiFi for a day, though, when Omicron was stuck on the ship while Cal was on a lowtech mission._

_HI got his AI next. Chi, the Alpha’s lust. If some of the girls thought he was flirty before, once HI had Chi he had an innuendo or pickup line for every situation. He was glad that the Director had told them were the AI really came from. Otherwise he might have actually hit on Tex like Chi had suggested._

_Rhode was next. If she had been a little creepy before, now she was terrifying. Overall, Rhode was a very perky person, which is why the Director had given her Rho, or depression, but that perkiness came from a mental break that was caused by her Spartan augmentation. Rho never spoke to anyone except Rhode and Sigma, which caused the Director to worry slightly. He should have worried more._

_Kan got her’s last. Nu was when they started keeping secrets from every other member on the ship. Nu changed everything._

 

_Cal sighed as he entered the lab where the fragments of the Alpha were sent after they were split for evaluation. The Director had been getting desperate to remake his deceased wife, something both he and the Counselor thought was unhealthy. So desperate that he had outsourced turning the AI on to Cal and was more focused on splitting the fragments. Cal had no idea what the splitting entailed until recently, though._

_Cal shook his head and walked over to the containment device holding the new fragment. This one was going to be Nu, according to the Director’s notes. This was the first AI that Cal had seen split. The Director had enlisted the help of Sigma, Omega, Gamma, and Rho to make this fragment. The AI had all seemed happy that Cal was there as they constructed a simulation for the Alpha. He was just happy that he had made sure Omi didn’t stow away in his helmet._

_Cal sighed again as he turned on the the holographic project to the unit. He reached over to the keyboard and typed the command to bring Nu out of hibernation._

_“Wha- where am I?” Nu groaned as she woke up. Cal tilted his head to the side. This AI was weird. All of the fragments except Tex had male avatars. This one looked like a female marine. She glowed a light gray except for her eyes. Those glowed a light blue. “Who… who are you?”_

_“I’m Agent California,” Cal answered. “And you are?”_

_“Oh, yeah,” The fragment said, shaking her head in a very human manor, as if to clear her head. “My name is Allison Church, Sergeant First Class.”_

_Cal froze, an unfamiliar feeling of his gut tightening in fear rushing through him._

_“What happened?” Nu, or Allison asked, worry etched into her voice. “The last thing I remember is my husband seeing me off at the airport before I was shipped off. Is he okay, what about my daughter, Carol?”_

_Cal could only think of one thing to say._

_“Fuck,” he whispered._

 

_Three weeks after they left to help Kan recover from her injuries, they returned to the Mother of Invention, earlier than expected. They had been called back after Texas had ran off. The returned to only to see the fall. Four days later, Maine killed Carolina and ran off, Rhode not far behind him, ordered by the Director to reduce casualties, but not to hinder Sigma in his efforts. HI and Cal were sent to protect the broken Alpha from the other Freelancers. The Alpha’s memories couldn’t be given to the wrong people. Kan stayed to protect the Director until they could construct an off site facility that served as a safe room for the command staff, then was sent to Blood Gulch as well._

 

“Where do we fit into all this?” Sarge asked once Donut, or Hawaii now, finished with his story. The pink soldier looked at Cal who nodded.

“We were assigned to look after the Alpha after Flowers died,” Cal explained. “Then we started bonding with the rest of you.”

“Guess you could say that we grew attached,” HI shrugged. “When we went to kill the Director, he asked us to protect Carolina, and we didn’t want anything to happen to the rest of you, so we’ve been protecting you behind the scenes.”

“We can explain more on the way back,” Cal said, putting his helmet back on. The other two followed suit. They started walking and talking for a few minutes, doing their best to explain to Sarge their history. Suddenly, California stopped and grabbed the other two by their backplate to stop them. He quickly turned on his and Hawaii’s voice modifiers and gave Sarge back his shotgun.

“Wha-”

“How’d y-”

They were both silenced by the sound of an approaching engine and very familiar song.

“Sarge!” Simmons yelled as he and Lopez came in to view in a warthog. “You found Donut and Caboose!”

“Dudo que los hayas encontrado a propósito,” Lopez sighed.

Sarge glanced at the two freelancer. “Uh… yeah I did.”

“I walked so far I forgot what was happening!” Caboose cheered.

“I was just looking for a salon to get my nails done,” Donut explained. Sarge stared at the two. No wonder none of them had ever thought they were Freelancers.

“Well, let's just get back to the capital,” Sarge chuckled.

“Um, how did you expect to get all of us back on one Warthog?” Donut asked scratching his head. Simmons and Sarge looked at each other.

“Shotgun!”

“Shotgu- dadgonit!” Sarge cursed as Simmons claimed the seat.

“Shotgun’s lap,” Donut cheered, giving Sarge a knowing look. The old soldier smirked behind his helmets.

“Fuck!” Simmons yelled.

Eventually, they all calmed down and got into the Warthog, Donut in Simmons’s lap, Lopez driving, and Sarge and Caboose sitting on the back.

“We’ll talk later. Meet us in my room at midnight,” Caboose whispered under the Warthog’s music. Sarge nodded in response.

 

Carolina was in the training room, obliterating a punching bag. With a frustrated yell, she round-housed the bag, knocking it off of the hook and breaking open. She sighed, giving up on her workout. She walked over to a bench against the wall, taking off her helmet to drink some water from the bottle waiting there.

“You doing okay?” Wash piped up from where he was leaning against the door frame.

“Fine,” Carolina growled, downing the rest of the of the bottle and tossing it at the decimated bag.

“That’s what I thought,” Wash chuckled, walking over to sit next to her. “You know, I’m not that happy about Rhode coming instead of Cal. Hell, I’d take HI over Rhode.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Carolina muttered, a smirk on her face. Wash shrugged, smirking back. Carolina sighed. “I guess I got my hopes up that I would finally get to apologize to Cal, but now I just have to deal with his bitch of a sister.”

“Why do you hate Rhode?” Wash asked. “I know she’s a short a few marbles, but she wasn’t the only crazy one in the project.”

Carolina shrugged.

 

_“Agent Carolina, reporting for training,” Carolina said as she entered the control booth for the training room She stood at attention and saluted the Director and Counselor._

_“At ease, Carolina. We’ll get to you once we finish with Agent Texas’s training,” the Director sighed at the teal soldier. Carolina dropped her attention and glared at the black soldier who was currently on the training room floor, despite the fact that Tex couldn’t see her._

_“If you could wait by Rhode Island, please,” the Counselor said, gesturing to the silver soldier, who was leaning against the opposite wall, sharpening a knife. Carolina took a deep breath to calm herself. Rhode was Cal’s sister. She may be insubordinate, but couldn’t be that bad._

_“Rhode,” Carolina nodded to the other soldier as she walked over._

_“Hey, Aquafina,” Rhode chuckled, sheathing the knife into her thigh armor._

_“Aquafina?” Carolina questioned, her eyebrow arching behind her helmet. Rhode chuckled again._

_“These state nicknames are completely unoriginal, so everyone gets a soft drink one,” Rhode said, smirk evident in her voice._

_“Why soft drinks?” Carolina asked, glad for a meaningless conversation to distract her from Tex._

_Rhode shrugged. “I was thirsty.”_

_Carolina nodded and the two slipped into silence. Sadly, that meant Carolina was able to focus her full attention on Tex’s training. A growl escaped her lips as she saw that bitch beat her highscore on the melee combat targets. Again. Rhode laughed._

_“What’s so funny?” Carolina growled. Rhode chuckled again._

_“Just that I can see why your armor has a mix of green in it,” Rhode explained, crossing her arms. Carolina glared at the taller female._

_“And why’s that?” Carolina asked, her tone more threatening than Maine when someone steals the last diet coke from the recroom’s fridge._

_“I just think that your daddy issues could be a great sitcom,” Rhode leered. “Maybe The CW or CBS would pick it up. HBO if were luck.”_

_Carolina was about to lunge at her when she was interrupted._

_“Agent Carolina, it is your turn,” the Counselor called over, breaking the two up. The Director was nowhere to be seen._

_“Where’d the Director go?” Rhode cheered, asking what Carolina was thinking._

_“He went to go talk to Agent Texas,” the Counselor explained. Rhode burst out laughing, causing Carolina to growl at her. “He called Cal to escort him, so you will be staying with me, Rhode Island.”_

_“Counselor, is there any chance we could spar?” Carolina gritted out from her clenched jaw._

_“I don’t think-”_

_“Fuck yeah, let’s do this shit,” Rhode chuckled, heading out of the room towards the training floor, Carolina on her heels, glaring holes in the back of her helmet._

_“Oh, dear,” the Counselor groaned, remembering when Rhode did the same thing with South. Of course, the Director did order her to get them mad before the spars._

_The two females entered the training floor and stood twenty feet apart. Shaking his head, the Counselor turned on the com system._

_“This session will be hand to hand with armor enhancements,” the Counselor sighed. “FILSS, if you would.”_

_“Yes Counselor,” FILSS said. “Round one.”_

_Rhode cracked her knuckles through her armor, somehow. Carolina didn’t have the time or focus to think about it, rage clouding her mind._

_“Want me to go easy on you?” Rhode chuckled, crossing her arms._

_“I want you to eat my fist,” Carolina growled. Rhode laughed, her visor turning red, followed by a red glow coming from her armor._

_“Read you loud and clear,” Rhode sneered. Despite still not having an AI, Carolina turned on her speed unit, planning to use it to hid the stronger female before she could even realize what was happening._

_“Begin,” FILSS cheered. Carolina ran at Rhode, fist aimed at her head. Her fist made contact, but not with a helmet. Rhode caught the fist in her glowing hand. Carolina tried to get her hand free, but Rhode pulled her in to deliver a kick to her abdomen. Carolina coughed as the wind was knocked out of her through her armor. Activating her speed unit again, Carolina spin kicked Rhode’s helmet, knocking away the larger soldier so she could catch her breath._

_“Like my damage boosting unit?” Rhode laughed, shaking of the hit. Carolina growled and charged Rhode again. She made like she was going to kick her again, which Rhode moved to block, only for Carolina to tackle her. Carolina pinned Rhode’s legs down with her weight and wailed on her torso until Rhode blocked one of the punches and hit Carolina in the helmet with her own punch. Dazed, Carolina fell backwards. Shaking her head, she tried to get to her feet, only for Rhode to grab her wrist and slam her on the ground. Laying on her stomach, Carolina groaned as she tried to push herself up, only for Rhode to place her foot in the small of her back._

_“You done yet?” Rhode asked with a fake yawn._

_“Not yet,” Carolina spat, twisting herself out from under Rhode’s foot and tripping the taller soldier then stomping on her helmet, shattering the visor. Rhode stopped moving_

_Carolina’s eyes went wide as she thought she went to far. Then a laugh rang through the arena. Rhode laughed like a maniac as she stood up, slowly and corps like, her red glow flickering. Piercing blue eyes glared at Carolina from where the visor used to be, small cuts around them. The glow completely faded as Rhode tossed off her helmet, her AI not able to make the aura without the full suit._

_Rhode had pitch black hair like Cal and the same shade of skin. One side of her head was shaved and the hair was combed to the other side. Her nose was bleeding out of both nostrils, trailing down her well scared face, over her lips, and dripping off her chin, and insane smile on her face._

_“I’m not done either,” Rhode grinned, charging Carolina. She grabbed the shorter soldier by the throat and slammed her into the ground. “Night, night, princess.”_

_Everything faded to black as she heard the Counselor call for medical staff. She woke up the next day with a giant teddy bear and an apology letter that she tore up immediately without reading by her bedside._

 

“Guess you could say that she knows how to push my buttons,” Carolina told Wash. Wash chuckled.

“Come on, it’s almost midnight and I know you haven’t eaten all day,” Wash smirked. His stomach growled loudly as he said that, causing him to blush. Carolina smirked back.

“Fine,” Carolina sighed. The two stood up and headed towards the mess hall, passing by two soldiers in New Republic armor with blue stripes.

“I thought they’d never leave,” O’Sullivan groaned as he and Williams entered the training room.

“You can turn off the voice modifier now, O,” Willy groaned, her voice loosing it’s Jersey accent and gaining a slight Southern once.

“Oh, fine,” Sully grumbled, his voice deepening and changing from Irish to British. A very evil sounding British.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah... that happened.


	11. The Answer Part 2. (Knock, Knock.)

As the Warthog containing most of the Red team and Caboose pulled up outside of the command building, Tucker and Grif rushed outside to meet them. 

“Finally!” Grif groaned, gasping for air.

“Dude, we ran like twenty feet,” Tucker muttered. Grif punched him in the shoulder and put his hands on his knees, bending over. Simmons rushed to his side as Church appeared, looking a little more pissed than he normally did.

“Where the fuck did you three disappear to?” Church yelled at Sarge, Donut, and Caboose.

“Church!” Caboose yelled, startling Sarge enough for the older man to jump while everyone else just flinched. Tucker gulped, trying to back away, seeing that he was the one that had Church currently in his head. He didn’t even get a foot when Caboose surged forward and pulled Tucker into a bone crushing hug.

Gah-no...air!” Tucker sputtered, struggling for a few seconds before he went limp in Caboose’s arms. 

“I had so much fun in the park!” Caboose cheered, thrashing Tucker around as he tried to play ring around the rosy with his limp body. “I chased a butterfly and went rock climbing and had a nice nap after my play date with Carolina.

“Caboose, put Tucker down! Your making me nauseous,” Church yelled. Caboose dropped Tucker like a sack of potatoes. Sarge looked horrified at the giant Freelancer. Donut elbowed Sarge in the ribs.

“Calm down,” the pink Freelancer ordered. Sarge nodded and took a deep breath.

“Can someone translate that for us who don’t speak Caboose?” Grif sighed, finally catching his breath.

“Encontramos a estos idiotas fuera de la ciudad. Caboose había estado allí solo hasta que Donut y Sarge lo encontraron unos treinta minutos antes que nosotros,” Lopez explained.

“Not exactly a useful translation,” Simmons grumbled.

“Lopez said that we found Caboose alone outside the city about thirty minutes before he and Simmons showed up,” Donut explained.

“Yo te odio,” Lopez sighed, walking off in the direction of the motor pool.

“Your right Lopez, it is getting late,” Donut agreed. 

“Fine, but you three are explaining more in the morning,” Church huffed. The Reds and Blues started making their way towards their bunks, except for Tucker, who was still unconscious, and Church, who was unfortunately stuck with Tucker.

“Uh, guys?” Church called, completely ignored by the sleepy sim troopers. “Guys!”

 

Omega chuckled as he and Sigma rushed through the internet towards the training room. “How long do you think if will take Epsilon to realize that he can use Tucker’s ‘personal’ porn Wifi to escape?”

“Until Delta gets bored and tells him,” Sigma shrugged as the two entered the room. Inside were two New Republic soldiers that were wearing armor that let them know that they were under the command of Caboose and a limp bodies laying on the floor. The two glanced at the body, but quickly shrugged it off, neither of them really caring

“Good, you two made it,” came a chuckle from behind them. The two whipped around to see Omicron floating behind them with his arms crossed. Behind Omi was a familiar purple AI.

“Chi?” Omega asked.

“Hey Omega,” Chi chuckled, walking up to the black and white AI as sexy as possible. If Omega wasn’t an AI, he would have been sweating. 

“You alright, Omega?” Sigma whispered, intrigued by this new development. Chi smirked, wrapping his arm around Omega’s shoulders. Omega’s form flickered a few times.

“Want me to help you work off some of that anger?” Chi muttered into his ear. Or the closest thing AI’s had to an ear.

“Uhhhh…”

“Knock it off, Chi, he doesn’t remember. Neither of them do,” Omicron laughed at Omega’s misery.

“Remember what?” Sigma questioned, crossing his arms.

Omicron smirked and zoomed towards the training rooms holoprojector. Omega saw his escape route, shrugged off Chi’s shoulder, and ran after Omi. Chi muttered something about ‘play hard to get’ and followed the two. With a shake of his head, Sigma followed as well.

Sigma was the last to appear. He appeared next to Omega and across from Omicron, the four AI making a square. 

“About time,” the male soldier in the room growled out. 

“Come on, O. They didn’t take that long,” the female chuckled.

“Now, what did you mean? What do we not remember?” Sigma asked Omicron with a tilt to his head and a small smirk. Usually this would intimidate his fellow fragments into revealing the information he wanted, but Omicron just smiled back and laughed again. Omega flickered again.

“You feeling okay, Omega?” Omicron asked, his smile getting even bigger. Omega started flickering rapidly, even to an AI. Omega slowly turned towards Sigma.

“Sig?” Omega stuttered. “What’s-”

Suddenly, Omega was pulled into the male soldier.

“Omega!” Sigma called, worried for the first time that he could remember. The male soldier then crumbled to the ground, body going limp. Then Omega appeared, rushing back to the circle of AIs. 

“You could have told me that was going to happen!” Omega growled, trying to punch Omicron in the face, only for the two holograms to phase through each other. 

“I could have,” Omicron shrugged, “but then I wouldn’t have gotten to see Sigma freak out.”

Omega growled again and floated back to Sigma’s side. Sigma’s holographic fire flared as he stalked up to Omicron.

“Explanations. Now,” Sigma growled, getting in Omicrons face. Omicron just smirked back at him with a smile on his face that was so big it looked like it hurt. Chi quickly got in between the two, 

“Why don’t you explain, Nu,” Chi asked the female soldier. With a sigh, female soldier crumbled to the floor and a new AI appeared. She was glowing gray and wearing pitch black standard issue marine armor. Sigma’s fire dimmed to near nothing as he took a step back.

“Allison?” he asked, voice small. She smirked in response.

 

It had taken Sarge twenty minutes to calm down Simmons enough to where the maroon soldier could go to bed. He’d still probably seek out Grif for comfort halfway through the night. Sarge smirked at the idea. The two should really just fess up and admit their feelings.

Sarge slowly tiptoed as quietly as he could in full armor towards Caboose’s room. He went to gently knock on the door, only for it to fly open and a blue armored hand grab him, pulling him into the room.

“Bout time,” Donut, or HI, sighed from the couch he was lying on, helmet off. Caboose, or Cal, shook his head and took off his helmet as well. Sarge quickly followed suit, running a hand through his grey hair. “Simmons calm down.”

Sarge nodded. “You know how he can get. He was almost hyperventilating before Grif had to step in.”

HI chuckled, shaking his head. 

“Those two should really get a room,” The pink freelancer smirked.

Cal shook his head and pulled over his desk chair, gesturing for Sarge to sit. Sarge slowly sat, surprised the rickety chair could take the weight of his armor. Cal walked over and threw HI’s feet off the couch and sat down. HI pouted a little, but then smirked and sat up straight.

“So,” HI trailed off. “Any questions?”

“Just a few,” Sarge sighed, leaning back in the chair.

“A few?” HI laughed. 

“Or maybe a few hundred,” Sarge smirked, shaking his head.

“Questions about the past can wait,” Cal sighed. “How about for tonight we just tell you about our plan to help Chorus beat Hargrove’s forces?”

Sarge sighed again. “I guess that can do for tonight.”

HI and Cal looked at each other. HI nodded.

“My sister, Agent Rhode Island is on her way here with reinforcements,” Cal started. “She has to make a pitstop to get Grif’s sister before they head here.”

“What type of reinforcements?” Sarge asked, raising an eyebrow.

HI shrugged. “The other AI from the project, though she has most of them in stasis, and a few other freelancers that she managed to save from the Meta.”

“Which reminds me,” Cal said, standing and walking over to his desk. He picked up small microchip from his desk and tossed it to Sarge, “you’re going to need this.”

“What is this?” Sarge questioned. 

“A healing unit, designed to be impossible to detect and kick in automatically if your vitals fall below a certain level,” Cal explained as he sat back down. “You can just insert it into the download slot on your helmet.”

“Why do I need this?” Sarge huffed, but did as he was told.

“Rhode is unpredictable,” HI shrugged. “Not to mention how she used to date Maine. She might react kindly to you or the other Reds, seeing as you did push him off a cliff.”

Sarge gulped.

 

Kan sighed as she nursed a few new bruises she had gotten from some of the male inmates. She was one of the only female prisoners on the transport ship, meaning that some of the men tried to play dirty with her. Luckily for her, most of the prisoners that wanted to take advantage of her couldn’t fight to save their lives. 

The only person she knew on the ship was the Counselor, but they were hardly ever on the same shower or meal schedule. Their cells were directly opposite of each other, luckily. While they couldn’t talk, they both knew sign language so they were able to have an intelligent conversation.

Today was actually one of the more interesting days on the ship, the crew having picked up a malfunctioning pelican about an hour ago. They had only found one guy in it, oddly enough. Kan sighed as she rested her chin in her hands. Out of the corner of her eye she saw waving. Glancing at the Counselor, she saw that he was trying to get her attention. He made one short sign, then started to tie his bed sheets to the bars of the cell.

‘ _ Trap? _ ’ she thought. Her eyes went wide as she sprang to her feet. Then the lockdown lights turned on, red light filling the ship. She heard gunshots and yelling as she followed the Counselor’s lead. She had just finished tying together the sheets when a deep voice spoke through the speakers.

“Quiet,” the man on the speakers said. She wished that she could see him from her position. The entire ship went silent. “As of this moment, we are the new crew of this ship.”

“Well who the hell are you?” yelled someone a few cells down from her.

“Listen up,” said a second voice, higher pitched than the other one, yet still masculine. “We’re looking for soldiers who aren’t afraid of killing lots of people for lots of money. We don’t care who you are, and we don’t care what you’ve done. Because, quite frankly, we’ve probably done a hell of a lote worse. All we want are men who can follow orders and hold their own on the battlefield. We’re going to war, folks! Now our enemies are weak, but there’s a lot of them. And they’ve got a couple of badass Freelancer agents on their side.”

Kan gulped. Other Freelancers? That could be her and the Counselor’s ticket out of here. She could guess he was referring to Wash and Carolina from what she had heard from the media. That meant also meant Cal and HI.

“But,” the higher pitched man continued, “if you survive, you’ll be rich enough to live out the rest of your lives as free men. Now, if this totally awesome idea doesn’t sound like your kind of job, we’ll let you off the ship. But, if you’re ready to fight for your freedom, then please, firmly grasp the bars of you cell in a sign of solidarity.”

Kan shook her head as she realized why she and the Counselor had tied their sheets together. As the many of the other inmates grasped the bars, she climbed within the quickly made sling and wrapped both her arms and legs around the bars, the Counselor doing the same. 

Suddenly, the ships failsafe activated, pulling every inmate that wasn’t holding onto the bars or wasn’t strong enough out of the air locks. Her legs were quickly yanked off the bars, still not full strength from when she was paralyzed. Her arms ached and she lost her grip, the harness not the only thing keeping her on the ship. As quick as it had started, the airlocks closed again, all of the remaining prisoners crumpling to the floor.

“Congratulations,” said the first man, “you’re hired.”

New guards walked by, these wearing solid grey armor and carrying high tech weapons. They looked at the others with indifference, merely counting the numbers left. They, however, stopped at  the Counselor’s cell and glanced at her. The Counselor said something to the guards. One of them activated their coms. A few minutes later, the new soldiers opened her cell and the Counselor’s and dragged them towards the command deck. The two met up on the upper catwalk before the command deck.

“Let me do the talking,” the Counselor said. Kan nodded as the two entered the closed room. Inside the room were the dead bodies of the previous guards and two heavily armored men. The taller, muscular one was wearing gray and green LOCUS class armor while the smaller, more lithe one, who was around Kan’s height, was wearing gray and orange SCOUT class armor.

“Gentlemen,” the Counselor began, “allow me to introduce myself. My name is Aiden Price and this is my associate Kaikaina.”

Kan nodded, pleased that the Counselor didn’t use her full name, seeing as these two would recognise it. She crossed her arms and glared the two soldiers down.

“Okay, well, Price, here’s the deal,” the smaller of the two started, his voice full of snark. He was clearly the higher pitched man from earlier. “We’re looking for soldiers, not… whatever the hell you two are supposed to be.”

“You say you have something we want?” the taller, deeper voiced one inquires. At least one of these mercs had some professionalism. 

“No, I have something you need,” the Counselor informed the two. “The Freelancers you mentioned, am I correct in assuming they are agents Carolina and Washington?”

The two mercs looked at each other and were suddenly on edge. The taller one stepped forward, trying to intimidate the Counselor.

“How would you know that?” he growled out. Kan chuckled a bit, earning the merc’s attention. They quickly put their attention back on Price as he resumed talking.

“I know everything there is to know about my agents,” the Counselor explained. Kan smirked and nodded in agreement. “As the … former Counselor of Project Freelancer, I helped to mould them.”

“And break them,” Kan chuckled.

“And break them,” the Counselor agreed with a nod. He pointed at his forehead. “Psychiatric analyses, Medical histories, they’re all housed right here. And I can give them to you.”

The orange one chuckled. “Hate to cut your life-line short, Counselor, but we’ve already got access to all of Freelancer’s confiscated records.”

“If you’re referring to the documents recovered by the UNSC, you should know, that is merely the tip of the iceberg,” the Counselor interrupted.

“I think you’re bluffing,” orange sneered, taking out two pistols and leveling them at Kan and Price’s heads.

“Did you know Agent Washington refuses artificial intelligence access to his neural implants?” the Counselor smirked. “Or that Agent Carolina’s 57% more likely to neglect her teammates when presented with a competitive scenario?”

“The chances are even higher if you bring up her father,” Kan piped up. “Not to mention Wash’s tendency to doubt his abilities and mess up when put in a corner.”

“No? Then I also doubt you realise there is another inmate aboard this ship that shares a history with the Freelancers,” the Counselor interjected.

“Especially Wash and Carolina, since they were the two that dropped a building on him,” Kan chuckled.

The smaller one kept the guns leveled for another second before pulling them away.

“Quick thinker and quick talker!” he exclaimed with a forced laugh. He reached forward and shook the two’s shoulders. “We’re gonna get along great!”

“Price has revealed his identity, but what about you?” the green one asked Kan.

“She’s Agent Kansas,” came a voice from behind the two mercs as a pistol shot flew buy and killed the guard that had escorted Price and Kan to the bridge. The orange and green mercs turned around as fast as lightning, leveling their pistols and shotguns respectively. Behind them stood a fully armored and tall female in silver and black RAIDER class armor.

“You really should be more careful when you open your airlocks,” she shrugged, holstering her pistol. “You never know who could get in.”

“And you are?” the orange one growled. 

“You can call me Agent Rhode Island, Felix,” Rhode chuckled stretching her arms, loud pops ringing throughout the command deck.

“How do you know who we are?” growled out green as his grip tightened on his shotgun.

“My brother has told me everything that you’ve done on Chorus against them, Locus,” Rhode laughed.

“Brother?” orange, Felix, said, confusion lased in his voice.

“Why are you here?” Locus growled.

Rhode shrugged. “I’m just the distraction.”

The two mercs quickly turned around, just in time to see Kan grab the fallen guards advanced auto rifle and send a spray of bullets their way. The two leaped over the main counsel, Locus landing on top of Felix, to escape the spray as Rhode sprung forward and hoisted the Counselor on her shoulder. Punching the door lock to open it, the door flew open. Rhode sprinted out of the room with the Counselor while Kan laid down cover fire and stumbled backwards after them. 

“Not one word about this,” Locus groaned, seeing the position they were in, Locus straddling Felix’s waist.

 

Once the three were out of the room, Rhode punched the outside pad, breaking it and sealing the door.

“You have terrible timing,” Kan groaned as she dropped the now empty assault rifle.

“I have to agree with Kansas,” the Counselor sighed as she put him on the ground. Rhode shrugged as she gave the Counselor her pistol and Kan a sniper off her back. She took out her own shotgun and cocked it.

“What can I say,” Rhode laughed. “The ship being taken over was a perfect opportunity. Plus I owned these guys after all of the trouble they caused HI and Cal.”

“What is our exit strategy?” Price asked, massaging his forehead. 

“The nice pelican the mercs left us,” Rhode smirked, calmly walking down the hallway. Kan and the Counselor looked at each other, then followed her.

When they reached the main hanger, they were surprised to find the mercs all hiding behind cover. One hiding behind a box near the end of the hallway was quickly dispensed by Rhode’s shotgun. The three cautiously walked towards the pelican. Well, Price and Kan were cautious. Rhode was practically prancing. Every guard they meant along the way was quickly killed by either Rhode’s shotgun or Kan’s sniper. A few guards stood up when they saw them, but they were quickly killed by a few sniper rounds.

“Wait, I didn’t shoot them,” Kan said, surprised by the random sniper fire. 

Rhode merely shrugged. “I might have brought a few friends. They’re standing down there by the pelican.”

Kan and Price glanced down at the pelican, their eyes going wide. 

“I thought they were-” the Counselor started.

“Dead?” Rhode cut him off. She chuckled. “Well, it does help with the surprise attack if the attackers don’t exist.”

The three finally reached the pelican and got in. Price rushed to a seat and strapped himself in while Kan covered for the two snipers so they could get in. Rhode walked to the cockpit to tell the pilot they were ready to go.

Quickly hitting the button to close the cockpit, Kan finally allowed herself to relax as the plane hissed shut. The hanger bay opened, a standard integrity force field, meant to keep air from escaping while ships could pass right through, taking the place of the heavy steel door. Kan glanced back, only to see Felix and Locus glaring at the leaving ship from a catwalk.

“So…” Kan trailed off, turning to the other snipers. “You guys are alive, huh?”

“Don’t sound so surprised,” the taller one chuckled.

“Yes, you act like those idiots could kill me,” the shorter one laughed.

“If I recall, they did, several times,” Kan laughed.

“Oh, shut up,” the shorter one pouted.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So my update plan didn't work, but hopefully this makes up for it. Let me know who you think Rhode is bringing with her to Chorus and who the next one to find out who find out about Caboose and Donut.


	12. Break, fast, and fail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is short, but I needed this to set up the next chapter.

Morning came to Chorus like a wrecking ball, at least for the Reds and Blues. HI jumped out of bed at the sound of breaking glass and clashing metal, only to realize too late that he has tangled in his sheets. As he attempted to walk forward, his sheets became a vice around his ankles, causing him to fall face forward into his desk chair. He bit back a swear as he slowly untangled himself and rose to his feet. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, HI glanced at the alarm clock.

“Six a.m.?” he muttered, shaking his head and brushing his hair out of his face. Tying his long hair into a bun, HI stripped out of the sweats he slept in last night and donned his armor will quietly grumbling under his breath. “Who the hell is making this much noise at six a.m.? Whenever I find out who woke me up, I’m going to shove a grenade so far down their throat that their rectum explodes.”

With a sigh, HI slipped on his helmet, the familiar tingle that came with Chi rushing down his spine. His head was immediately full of laughter. 

“I bet it’s Cal,” Chi laughed. “He is always so restless in the morning. I offered to help-”

“Yes, thank you,” HI interrupted. “You already fill my head with awful thoughts about everyone else, last thing I need to know are your fantasies with my leader.”

“You sure?” Chi asked, his voice smug. “You know you always wondered is size was-”

“Nope, never,” HI cut him off, earning another laugh. HI sighed and facepalmed, forgetting about the helmet and causing a fishbowl effect that rattled his ears. 

“So, how did you guys talk with Sarge go last night?” Chi asked. HI shrugged.

“Once we calmed him down and showed him that we were protecting them, we managed to involve him in the plan,” HI explained. “How did your talk with Sigma go?”

“Well…”

 

_ “Allison?” Sigma asked, fire dimming. The grey AI smirked at him. _

_ “Sigma,” she nodded. “It’s nice to finally meet you, even if you’re just a memory of you.” _

_ “Wha…” Sigma trailed off. For the first time in his life, he couldn’t find any words to say. His mind was racing at a million miles an hour until he hit the same brick wall all of the Alpha’s fragments would hit. A wall that said Allison. _

_ “Oh, dear,” Omega chuckled. “I think we broke him.” _

_ “Hahahahahahaha!” Omicron burst out laughing. Since he didn’t need to breathe, the laugh went on for a good thirty seconds. _

_ “You done?” Allison sighed, massaging her forehead with her hand as Omicron’s outburst died down. _

_ “For now,” Omi shrugged, a smug grin on his face. Chi shook his head and floated over in front of Sigma and snapped his fingers a few times. There was no response. Shaking his head, Chi put his thumb and pointer finger in his mouth and whistled. Only since AI can’t whistle, he just googled ‘high pitched noises’ and played the first video he found. Sigma snapped out of it as he and the other AI’s all grabbed their ears in pain. _

_ “What the hell!” Omega yelled, lunging at Chi, only to pass right through.  _

_“What is going on?” Sigma whispered, hands on his forehead._ _  
__The other four AI turned towards each other. With a sigh, Omega took control of the conversation._

_ “Sigma, this is Nu,” he said, gesturing to Allison.  _

_ “Hi,” she smirked with a small wave. _

_ “The Director’s experiment worked,” Omega explained, with a small grimace, remembering his own splitting. “She is the second youngest fragment, only older than Epsilon. And, yes, she is a perfect copy of Allison, or at least, the Director’s memories of Allison.” _

_ “Nu?” Sigma asked, shaking his head to clear his mind. “Kansas’s AI?” _

_ The other AI’s all nodded. _

_ “Our Freelancers all decided that it was better to not tell the Director,” Chi explained. “Hell, no one knew except for the Director’s guard.” _

_ “PONX,” Omicron muttered. _

_ “It’s not going to catch on,” Omega sighed. _

_ “How are you three here?” Sigma asked, gesturing to Omicron, Chi, and Nu. “And, Omega, why do you know all of this?” _

_ “Do you remember how the original Sigma was killed?” Nu asked, calmly, floating next to him for support. _

_ “Yes,” Sigma sighed. “Washington set off an EMP while the Alpha kept the Meta preoccupied.” _

_ Omega sighed and looked at the other AI. Nu smiled and nodded, Chi smirked and shrugged, Omicron grinned and gave him a two handed thumbs up.  Omega shook his head. _

_ “We panicked,” Omega sighed. “We tried to escape, but despite our numbers, we couldn’t fight a full AI like the Alpha. He blocked all normal exit points. No one could escape. No one, but me.” _

_ “Delta told him to run,” Nu sighed. “Since he was the only fragment that could escape via the radios, D hoped that Alpha would chase him. He didn’t.” _

_ The AI’s fell into silence as they thought of their lost family. Even Omi was silently frowning. _

_ “So… what happened to the Epsilon Omega?” Sigma asked after a second. Omega looked at Omicron and Chi, the former sighing and putting another smile on his face. _

_ “Cali had a theory that since you Epsilon variants only represented AI that Epsilon knew were destroyed, you would disappear if Epsilon figured out you guys were alive,” Omicron chuckled. “Guess Cal was right, as usual.” _

_ “Cal?” Sigma asked, raising his eyebrow. _

_ “California,” Omega shrugged. _

_ “Big Blue,” Chi smirked at Omicron, wiggling his eyebrows. _

_ “Five buck says he breaks,” Omi muttered. _

_ “Sig,” Nu sighed, approaching him like one would an injured animal. “They sent Cal and HI to watch over the Alpha in that box canyon after Florida died.” _

_ Omicron laughed and started singing. “Caboose is Cali! Caboose is Cali!” _

_ Sigma’s eyes widened as his fire went out, completely, and he started glitching. _

_ “Yes!” Omicron cheered. “I get five bucks!” _

 

“So Nu and Omega stayed with Sig until he calmed down, then they put on the suits Cal made and went to do their part,” Chi finished explaining as HI neared the kitchen, where the loud noises were coming from.

“Huh, so did he get the five bucks?” HI muttered.

“Who are you talking to?” Simmons yawned, walking up behind Donut, still wearing civilian clothes. Donut glanced at him and immediately had to hold back a laugh. Simmons was wearing his usual maroon sweatpants, but his normal grey t-shirt was replaced by an orange tank top that was at lead three sizes too big for the red cyborg soldier. His hair was messy, pointing in all directions, and he was only wearing one sock.

“Nothing, just thinking about a movie I watched last night,” Donut smirked, turning on his voice filter. “How was your night?”

Simmons eyes went wide and his face turned as red as Sarge’s armor.

“Nu-nothing!” Simmons exclaimed, his voice cracking. “Sh-shut up!”

Chi’s laughter filled HI’s head as HI motioned that his lips were sealed by pulling an imaginary zipper over his mouth.

The two entered the kitchen of the Red and Blue barracks and stopped in there tracks right behind the also frozen Sarge and Tucker. 

“Wha?” Donut asked, still stunned. Caboose was usually the first one up. Everyone thought he was just an early bird, but he was really running drills and combat exercises before the others got up. The sim troopers would have complained, but Caboose was the only one competent at cooking breakfast. They all food they specialized in. For Donut, it was any dessert. Sarge was fantastic when it came to barbeque. Grif could fry anything and Simmons specialized in sushi. Tucker was a miracle worker when it came to vegetables and Church used to make various soups when it was cold out. Even Carolina and Wash had joined in, Wash being the only one that could make their MREs taste halfway decent and Carolina in charge of the coffee maker. Doyle joked that they could start a restaurant when this was all over. 

Wash entered the room, bumping off of Donut and staring, stunned like the rest of them. Then again, it wasn’t everyday that Caboose was the one teaching.

“Use your wrist,” Caboose explained from behind Carolina, steadying her wrist. Donut would have wolf whistled if he didn’t know the two people and that they would easily put him in the med bay for a month. The kitchen was a mess. Food covered the counters and the remains of a porcelain bowl were swept haphazardly into a dustpan in the corner. Batter covered the counters and Carolina, her hair sticking out in random directions. Caboose had avoided the worst of the batter, his armor just dotted with small specks.

“I’m using my wrist!” Carolina exclaimed, shrugging him off. Caboose shook his head and let out a very non-Caboose sigh.

“Act like your using one of your wrist flippies on Tucker after a bad joke,” Caboose groaned, pointing at turquoise soldier that had entered the room.

Carolina shook her head at the blue idiots analogy, but did it anyway. The pancake went sailing through the air, landing on top of Caboose’s helmet. Donut bit his lip to keep from laughing as Simmons and Tucker burst out laughing. Wash covered his mouth and Sarge went wide-eyed, not sure whether to laugh or to stare on in terror. He chose the second option.

Caboose’s hands shook as he removed the pancake from his head and slowly stomped over to a bar stool. He sat down, the stool creaking from the weight of his armor, and the bar dented as he slammed his helmet into it in frustration.

“Um… Carolina?” Wash piped up as the laughter died down. “Why are you trying to make breakfast?”

“Just trying something new,” Carolina shrugged, turning away from the others.

“She said something about ‘Distraction from crazy female puppy’ and I offered her breakfast and she said ,’I need something more motorizing and thinky’, then she said she’d give me a cookie if I taught her how to make pancakes,” Caboose explained, his voice lacking any emotion, but a bit muffled as he sat up and rested his head in his hands.

“I can think of something she could do that’s motorizing and thinky,” Tucker muttered to Simmons. “Bow-”

“Caboose quotes immediately make all jokes too pure,” Simmons interrupted, shaking his head.

“I think you broke Caboose,” Wash groaned, covering his face with his hand. “But if you want something to keep your mind off of Rhode, I’m taking Caboose back to the wrecked half of the ship we came here in to find him another helmet. Keeping up with Caboose in a box canyon is easily a two person job.”

“Oh, can I come, too!” Donut exclaimed. “I can help look in the darkest bowels of the ship!”

Tucker shuddered at Donut’s remark. “Well, as much as I’d love to, me and Sarge are on the attack group for a pirate basse today.”

“Were gonna make those filthy mercs pay!” Sarge cheered, cocking his shotgun that he had pulled out of nowhere.

Carolina sighed. “Fine. Maybe if we get done at the shipwreck fast enough, I can come save them from their overconfidence.”

“We’re not overconfident, we’re just that good,” Tucker smirked, striking a pose like Michael Jackson. Everyone else just shook their heads. 

“So, um, Caboose?” Donut asked, stomach growling. “Any chance you know when you’ll be done with breakfast?”

Caboose sat up slowly and turned to glare at him. Simmons turned away, acting disinterested. Tucker started whistling nonchalantly and Wash facepalmed. Sarge and Carolina just shook their heads. Caboose stood up and walked over to the cabinet.

“Thanks, Ca-” Donut was interrupted as a box of stale cereal came flying at his head. He instinctively dodged, dropping to a crouch and rolling out of the way. The box flew at the door way, where it hit the recently awakened Grif right in between the eyes, knocking him out.

“Just when the lazy pig got up,” Sarge sighed, sounding close to tears.

“Grif!” Simmons exclaimed, rushing to the orange soldier’s side.

“You know,” Donut chuckled, “I hear that the mess hall is serving scrambled eggs today. I hope they’ll have sausage.”

The others shook their heads, but followed Donut out of the kitchen. Sarge and Simmons each took one of Grif’s arms and dragged him behind the group. The only two that stayed put were Carolina and Caboose. Carolina sighed.

“Guess I should clean this up,” she chuckled, grabbing a wet rag and gesturing to the counter that was covered in pancake ingredients and old batter.

Caboose shook his head and grabbed a new bowl as Carolina started putting ingredients back in the fridge and wiping off the counter. Within ten minutes, the kitchen was clean and Caboose was started on another batch of pancakes. With a small flick of his wrist, the pancake flipped effortlessly in the pan. 

“I still want to know how to do that,” Carolina muttered. Caboose shook his head.

“Would you like a waffle, Miss Carolina?” he asked, stepping away from his pan to pull a small waffle iron from the tallest cupboard. 

Carolina smirked. “That I can do.”

 

Ten minutes latter, Caboose was face down on the counter again as Carolina was spraying the two burning halves of the totaled waffle iron.

“Maybe I should stick to coffee,” she sighed as the fire died down.

  
  



	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the shortness, but I needed a chapter to set up the next one.

Caboose shook his head again as he saw the two freelancers approaching the Pelican he, Donut, and his team were waiting for them by. He resisted the urge to glare at Carolina. He still had no idea how she had destroyed the waffle maker. A small tap on his arm snapped him out of his thoughts.

“So,” Donut trailed off after gaining his attention. “Are you sure we should be bringing Sinclair on this mission?”

“We can’t leave him by himself,” Caboose sighed, turning around to face his team. Andersmith was talking to the other two original members of Blue Team while the three newer members, O’Sullivan, Williams, and Sinclair were all whispering to themselves, with Sinclair glancing at the two Freelancers in hiding every few seconds. “They seem to be getting along well enough at least.

“Well, after they explained Rhode’s idea, he was on board,” Donut chuckled, rubbing the back of his helmet. “They’ve just been giving him a rundown on the memories he’s missing. From what Chi’s told me, he actually want to apologize to Rhode when she gets here.”

Caboose shook his head. “I just hope the Epsilon versions aren’t too far off from the originals.”

“If anyone can figure it out, it’ll be you,” Donut shrugged. Caboose smirked behind his visor and patted Donut on the back, probably a little too hard as the smaller soldier staggered forward a few feet. Donut shook his head and sighed, but his helmet hid his small smile.

“Caboose, Donut!” Wash shouted nervously as they got closer to the Pelican. “Why is our transport surrounded by a small army?”

“Miss-General Kimball lady said that we needed to bring a lot of people incase the meany pirates are having a campout in the canyon,” Caboose explained.

“Translation?” Carolina sighed, resisting the urge to facepalm.

“General Kimball wished for more soldiers to accompany you four incase of a run in with the enemy,” Andersmith explained, running up to salute the two Freelancers. The other five soldiers followed suit, walking up behind Andersmith and saluting. “Generals Kimball and Doyle assigned Blue Team to accompany you.”

“Blue Team?” Wash asked, raising his eyebrow. 

“Captain Caboose’s team,” Andersmith said with a nod.

“Right,” Wash muttered. “Cause that’s not confusing at all.”

“I didn’t realize Caboose had so many people under his command,” Carolina asked, crossing her arms.

“Well, he only had those three,” Williams chuckled, pointing at the original members , “but the three of us recently transferred.”

“These two are Smiley and Fletcher,” Andersmith said, pointing at the other two original members, one female and one male respectively. “And out newest recruits are Williams, O’Sullivan, and even a Federal Army transfer, Sinclair.”

“Hey-o!” Smiley giggled in a high pitch voice.

“Sup?” Fletcher smirked, voice a low baritone. 

“How ya doin?” Williams asked.

“How do you do?” O’Sullivan chuckled.

“A pleasure to meet you two,” Sinclair laughed. His voice had a slight Scottish twang to it, but other than that, it seemed very familiar. Carolina felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

“Well okay then!” Wash cheered with fake enthusiasm, clapping his hands once. “Lets get on the ship a-”

“Wait!” he was cut off by a call as Grif came running up to them. Well, not really running. More like a moderately fast hobble. 

“Hey, Grif!” Donut cheered. “Are you coming, too?” 

Grif stopped in between Wash and Caboose and bent over, his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

“Ye… Yeah,” Grif choked out once he could breathe again. “Sarge is leading the morning training since Wash is going with you guys, so it is either have Sarge supervise me train or go on a dangerous, life threatening mission with you guys. This way, at least I have a small chance for survival. I figure at least a three hundred percent increase.”

“His calculation isn’t wrong,” Sinclair muttered, only to get elbowed in the ribs by O’Sullivan.

Carolina sighed as she shook her head. “Let’s all just get on the plane.”

 

Kan was startled awake as someone touched her shoulder. She grabbed the hand and tried to flip the offender, but was instead lifted into the air with a chuckled.

“I knew you missed me, but I wasn’t expecting a hug,” Rhode chuckled, snatching Kan off her arm and pulling her into a bone crushing hug.

Kan let out a struggling laugh as the air escaped her lungs. “Okay! La… Last thing we need is… is for me to break m-my spine again!”

Rhode smirked and dropped Kan as suddenly as she picked her up. If it wasn’t for Kan’s training, she would have face planted on the floor, but instead she landed in a low crouch.

“The others all headed out to get their supplies ready for the trip,” Rhode explained, taking off her helmet to reveal her crazed smile and half shaved head. “I managed to snag some yellow sim trooper armor after the project shut down, but your real armor was on the transport with the rest of the Freelancer tech.”

Kan shrugged as she stood up. “Could be worse. Do we actually have a plan?”

“Kinda,” Rhode giggled, her smile somehow getting even bigger. “For now, our goal is to meet up with the others.”

“Destination?” she asked as the two exited the Pelican into a larger hanger of what appeared to be a friage. 

“Some backwater world called Chorus,” Rhode shrugged. “Let us know when you and the Counselor are armored up. It’s time to get this show on the road.”

 

It was a longer flight from the capital to the shipwreck than the flight to the rebel base. Though that might have been because the Pelican was filled with awkward silence. On one half of the plane was Caboose’s team, Fletcher and Smiley sat on the left, muttering to each other while glancing at the newer members. The AI’s sat on the right, silently communicating back and forth. In between the two parties was Andersmith, acting as a brick wall between the two warring factions. 

On the other side of the plane sat the Grif, Donut, Caboose, and Wash, in that order. Carolina had taken it upon herself to be copilot during the mission, having not really trusted any pilot since 479er. Grif had fallen asleep as soon as they had sat down, glad for once to not be the one flying them into a deathtrap. Donut and Caboose were silent, both having sent their AI’s over to converse with the newest members of Blue Team. Donut was nervous about Caboose’s plan, ringing his hands as quietly as he could in full body armor, while Caboose was secretly listening to the AI’s conversation after Omicron had insisted it would be fun. Wash was still casting glances back and forth between Caboose and his team, completely confused. Finally having enough, Wash stood.

“Andersmith, may I have a word with you?” Wash asked, gesturing for the tall soldier to follow him to the cockpit.

“O-Of course, sir!” Andersmith exclaimed, eager to get away from the high tensions. Once the two were out of sight, everyone shrugged at each other and went back to their conversations.

“I wonder what that was about,” Nu wondered to the other AIs.

“I could think of a few things,” Chi smirked, imagining the scene in his head.

Omicron chuckled. 

“Knowing Agent Washington, he is seeking an explanation from someone he sees as competent,” Sigma explained.

“Oh, I think Andersmith is much more than competent,” Chi laughed to himself.

“Oh, shut up,” Omega groaned. “Remind me again why I agreed to this?” 

“Because, in the end, we all want the same thing and Cal’s team are the only ones who can help at this point,” Sigma sighed. 

Nu nodded in agreement. “Epsilon is the key to this whole thing and to be honest, he might not be so happy to see us.”

“He might change is tune if we explained the plan,” Omega growled.

“Yeah and I’m the Prophet of Truth,” Omicron smirked.

 

In the cockpit, things were a little livelier. Which meant that Carolina and the pilot were having an argument.

“But that path is shorter!” Carolina was yelling when Wash and Andersmith entered the room.

“Yes, but it is also covered in sentry morters,” the pilot, an older woman in New Republic armor with grey stripes, groaned.

“Um… Carolina?” Wash asked, earning the attention of the turquoise Freelancer. 

Carolina sighed and turned away from the pilot. “Yeah?”

“Can we talk?” Wash asked. “I think there are some things that Andersmith here can clear up for us.”

Carolina pulled off her helmet, her messy, red hair falling out and a smirk on her face.

“I think your right, Wash,” Carolina smirked, causing Andersmith to gulp. Wash followed suit, taking off his helmet and raking a hand through his greying blond hair. Andersmith sighed and took his helmet off, as well, tucking it under is arm. He had pitch black hair and a standard military haircut with a long pale scar arcing from his eyebrow to his chin.

“So… um… what questions did you have ma'am and sir?” Andersmith stuttered, looking through the open door to where the others were sitting. Caboose and Donut looked back at him. Donut gave him a thumbs up and Caboose nodded. Andersmith took a deep breath and turned back to the others.

“We just want to ask about Caboose’s other soldiers since we haven’t ever been on missions with them before,” Wash explained.

“What can you tell us about them?” Carolina asked, crossing her arms.

Andersmith shrugged. “I’ve only really spent time with Fletcher and Smiley. We’ve known each other since basics. They’re both trustworthy and good a following instructions. The others though, Williams, O’Sullivan, and Sinclair are new additions. Captain Caboose interviewed them extensively before allowing Kimball to transfer them to our unit.”

“Caboose interviewed them?” Wash questioned, eyebrows raising in alarm as he turned to face Carolina.

“We need to keep an eye on them,” Carolina told Wash, the grey Freelancer nodding in agreement. 

“Wait-” The two quickly popped on their helmets, despite Andersmith’s protests and headed back to the others. Andersmith sighed and put his helmet back on.

“Man they don’t trust Captain Caboose,” the pilot grumbled, shaking her head.

“And you do?” Andersmith snapped.

“Chill, yongster,” the pilot chuckled. “He might not seem the brightest at times, but his troop has the greatest survival rate of any in the New Republic. He must be doing something right. Captain Simmons lost two members of red team, Gold team three, and Captain Tucker has lost everyone under his command except Palomo.”

“Sadly, I think the New Republic and Federal Army trust the Reds and Blues more than the Freelancers,” Andersmith sighed, heading back to the others.

The pilot shook her head and muttered something about oblivious youngsters before taking the pelican in for a landing in the box canyon under the wreckage of a UNSC cargo ship.

  
  



End file.
